Elation filled Jenna.Freedom. She hadn’t realized how bad her cabin fever had gotten until the offer of freedom was presented to her. Jack had gotten this for her, which filled her both with sorrow and love for her husband. There was no doubt that he was plagued with guilt for abandoning her. He wouldn’t be Jack if he wasn’t. But even in his absence, he was taking measures to take care of her.
Her sorrow came at the reminder ofwhyher husband was absent. Though she knew that pain would never go away.
“Wow, Dad doesn’t do things half-ass, does he?” Ollie remarked, looking around the chair with a measure of awe. “Black’s a bit boring, if you ask me. We’ll have to get some decorations for you.”
Jenna chuckled at her son. Ever since the accident, he’d been calling them ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’. Jenna hadn’t really had the opportunity to appreciate how good that sounded until now.
“Okay, there should be a Transportation Mode,” Lilly said, glancing between her phone and the control panel. “Don’t push it now, obviously, but you’ll need to when we get out into the car.”
“Are we borrowing Bree’s van?” Jenna inquired. It was the only way she could think of to get this chair to go with them to the doctor’s office. The thing was huge, and she had no idea how she was going to get it out the front door.
“Not exactly,” Lucky answered. From the look in his eyes, Jenna knew he’d been in on the powerchair gift. Likely that was why he’d been in her house this morning, not just to check on her as he’d claimed.
“Please tell me Jack didn’t buy us an ADA car too,” Jenna begged. They had savings, but they weren’t rich by any means. Medical supplies like this cost a lot, especially when insurance was finicky at best. Their healthy savings wouldn’t be so healthy if Jack kept buying things like this powerchair.
“He didn’t,” Lucky assured her. “Keys did.”
Jenna blinked. “Keys did?”
“You haven’t been out to it yet, Mom, but Uncle Keys’ new building issweet,” Ollie exclaimed. “It’s like the building has a mind of its own. It’s not done yet, but it’s already awesome.”
Jenna had forgotten Keys and Tom were building a headquarters for their new security business across the street from the club’s property. She felt bad because she couldn’t remember the name of the company.
She also had no idea what Keys’ new business had to do with having a wheelchair-accessible car.
Lucky, thankfully, took pity on her confusion. “Keys now has a fleet of cages,” he explained. “One of them has a wheelchair ramp.”
Jenna tried to wrap her mind around that. But all she kept wondering was where Keys got the money for something like that, as well as the new building.
Lilly grabbed Jenna’s and her purses. “It’s going to take getting used to, but it’s not like we are in a rush. I already called the office and told them to push Ollie’s appointment back a bit. Let’s take our time and see what we can do.”
Jenna placed her hand on the joystick. Remembering how hard it was to maneuver the rented electric scooter atDisney World, she barely touched the stick to move herself forward. It was more of a crawl than a move, but at least she wasn’t going to go flying through the wall like Wile E. Coyote.
Ollie and Aaron exited the front door first. A temporary ramp had already been placed over the stairs when Ollie had been injured months ago. Jenna’s spatial awareness was off because the chair fit through the doorframe with a little room to spare on each side.
“I can’t believe Jack did this,” Jenna told Lilly as her sister-in-law and Lucky followed her outside.
Lilly reached for Jenna’s hand. “Jackie’s hurting. As pissed as I am that he’s been away all this time, I understand it. There’s not a single part of me that doesn’t want to go after that bastard for taking Melanie from us too. And it took me some time to realize that he’s not being selfish by staying away. He’s being a father. This,” she gestured down to the chair, “is him trying to be a husband.”
Jenna had to concentrate to get her fingers to squeeze slightly around Lilly’s hand. “It took me a while to get there too. I even went as far as separating Jack and Steel in my head.”
“I never went that far, but I certainly had some choice words for him.”
The spring sun was bright as they traveled down the ramp. In the driveway was a silverToyotaSienna with its trunk open anda ramp already descended. The door of the trunk looked to have a different hinge than a standard minivan, making the opening to the trunk wider and taller.
A man Jenna didn’t recognize stood by the taillight. He was tall with an air of military around him, but he wasn’t wearing a cut. Instead, he had on a heather-gray suit and jacket with a light blue collared shirt. He could have been walking down Wall Street if not for the combat boots on his feet. They were sleek, not scuffed up like Lucky’s, but Jenna didn’t doubt that they were well broken in.
The man’s biceps were huge, straining against the suit jacket like a single flex would be all it would take to break through the material. His black hair was styled into long messy waves. He had a five o’clock shadow, despite it being mid-morning, around his sharp jaw. Jenna couldn’t see his eyes behind the Aviators he wore, but figured they’d be a dark brown or green.
He was handsome, rugged. She completely understood Ollie’s jaw-dropping reaction upon seeing him.
As Aaron pushed Ollie’s jaw back up into place, the man stepped forward and held his hand out to Lucky. “Good to see you again.”
Lucky accepted the hand with a clasp and an arm slap. “You, too. Let me introduce you to your charges for today.” Turning he pointed to each of them. “This is Steel’s wife, Jenna, and their son, Ollie, his sister, Lilly, and Ollie’s boyfriend, Aaron. He’s also Cage and Angel’s son.”
The man nodded to each of them as they were named but stepped forward to greet Jenna. “Hawthorne Riley, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I am so sorry about your daughter.”
Jenna had to concentrate to get her hand to raise enough to shake Mr. Riley’s offered hand. The man didn’t seem impatient, though, and kept his hand steady until Jenna was able to place her hand in his. “Thank you,” she responded, slightly delayed.“It’s good to meet you too, Mr. Riley, and please forgive my confusion, but who are you and what are you doing in my driveway?”
