Her Wedding Dress novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Cleared for Everything

My lawyer sent a transcript of the recording to Judith's lawyer on a Friday.

By Monday the hospital guarantor was back, with a letter of apology signed by nobody.

My father had his surgery eight days later, and my mother sat by his bed with her slippers off.

I did not visit as often as I wanted.

My daughter had come home from the hospital, and I was not leaving her.

The rental house had two bedrooms and a yellow kitchen, and the lease had my name on it alone.

On a Friday night, six weeks after the birth, I stood at the counter with a glass of water.

Rhett was at the sink, drying a bottle.

The monitor beside the toaster showed a small green light and the slow rise of her chest.

"Fact," I said.

He looked up. "That's my line."

"I saw my doctor this morning."

"And?"

"She cleared me for everything."

The towel stopped moving.

"Everything," he said.

"Her word."

He put the bottle down very carefully.

"I don't want you to think I expect..."

"Rhett."

"I've been sleeping on the couch for six weeks, and I've been fine."

"You have not been fine. You rock the baby with one hand and hold the wall with the other."

He went red along the cheekbone, and I laughed.

I walked around the counter and put my hand flat on his chest.

His heart was going hard under my palm.

"There's a thing you know," I said. "I can see it. Tell me now, before I find it out."

His eyes darkened.

I was throwing his own rule back at him, and he knew it, and he took the dare.

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