He cleared his throat. “Hey, Em. I…”
She looked from him to the box, then back again. “What’s that?”
He glanced at me briefly, then back at her. “It’s a new wheelchair for you.”
Her mouth fell open. She looked like she might cry. “What?!”
Jillian, her mother, appeared behind her, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Emily, who’s—”
She stopped mid-sentence.
David set the box down so quickly he nearly dropped it. “Your old one was bad,” he rushed. “I mean—not bad bad—just… it wasn’t working right. And I found one, and I thought maybe…”
Emily’s eyes filled instantly.
“You bought me a wheelchair?” she whispered.
David looked embarrassed. “Yeah.”
“How?”
He hesitated.
I answered gently, “He sold his guitar, sweetie.”
Jillian covered her mouth.
Emily stared at him like he had just handed her the moon. “Why would you do that? You love playing guitar, David.”
He shrugged—his usual move when he had done something huge and wanted to downplay it. “Because you needed it, Em.”
Emily’s father, Nathan, stepped into the hallway then, still in uniform pants and a gray T-shirt, as if he had just come off a shift. He took in the scene—the box, Emily crying, David standing there.
“What’s going on here?”
Jillian turned to him. “David sold his guitar to buy Emily a new chair.”
Nathan froze. He suddenly looked both younger and more tired at the same time.
David, poor kid, mistook that silence for disapproval.
“It’s okay if you don’t want it,” he said quickly. “I mean, I already paid for it, but I could probably…”
Emily burst into tears. “No! No, I want it. I need it.”
She laughed through her tears and reached for him. David stepped forward awkwardly and let her hug him, his ears turning bright red.
Then Jillian started crying too.
Nathan didn’t cry. But something in his face changed—something I would never forget.
He stepped forward slowly, as if afraid to startle David. “Son,” he said, his voice rough, “you sold something you loved for my daughter?”
David looked down. “Yes, sir.”
