Chapter 10: Left Side

Lyle came out of the house with the garden hose already running.

He walked down the gravel drive in his slippers, calm and unhurried, with the hose trailing behind him through the dirt.

"Lyle," Zach called from the garage window. "What are you doing?"

"Watering."

"What are you watering?"

"I haven't decided."

The man in the black SUV saw him coming and rolled his window up.

It was a little late.

Lyle stopped beside the passenger door, which was open, and he lifted the nozzle.

He soaked the front seat first.

Then he moved the stream across the dashboard, the leather headrests and the gray carpet, slowly and with great attention.

The photographer shouted something.

Lyle kept going.

"It's a rental," the man yelled, and Lyle said, "Then you'll want the deposit back," and sprayed the second row.

The SUV left in reverse with its door still swinging.

Lyle turned off the hose at the faucet and coiled it neatly on its hook.

When he came up the stairs, he was smiling to himself.

"Not one drop on my upholstery," he said. "I never said a word about theirs."

"That was assault with a hose," Zach said.

"It was irrigation."

I laughed.

I couldn't help it, and I made the mistake of laughing hard.

My rib caught, and I folded over with a gasp.

Zach was across the room before the sound ended, but he stopped a foot away with his hands up.

"Left side?" he said.

"How did you know it was the left?"

"You've held your arm on it for three days," he said. "I thought you were rocking the baby."

"I cracked it laughing in the car."

"Have you had it checked?"

"They gave me a pamphlet."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Got Engaged During My Labor, So I Chose His Rival from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.