The Rental / The Rental (ePub)

Megan Kolt has been trapped, a prisoner in her own body, for the past six years. Her husband, Turner Kolt, has watched her slowly waste away in a coma, but he's been assured her brain is functioning and she still has her senses. When offered a chance for his wife to live vicariously through someone else through a fairly new service from Rall Rentals, he wants to let his wife experience…something. Anything.

Wanting to use her own life to help others, Jory Wittenhouse applies for the Rall Rentals program to allow others who are less fortunate to live through her. After vigorous testing, she's approve and given a special case, not the usual disabled or handicapped client. The renter is completely comatose and paralyzed, but still reacts to stimuli. She's told the woman's family wants her to spend whatever time she has left being happy, and Jory wants to give her that.

Turner has his reservations, and questions are raised. He proposes the opportunity to meet the rental, if she's willing, to put his own mind at ease, under the guise of letting Megan see his face one last time. He wasn't expecting her to be perfect. For Megan, that is.

He wants Megan to experience what it's like to be alive again, to be loved, and that's why he's attracted to Jory. Because Megan is in there somewhere, or so he's trying to convince himself to ease the guilt. But as much as he wants Megan to live again, Turner isn't living himself.

Time and love will make that decision for him.