Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 44 of 78

The ring box had stayed in Arianna's hands for three days. Kylie hadn't asked about it once. She kept her promise: Arianna would start when she was ready. But every quiet moment in the manor felt heavy. Kylie didn't know what would make Arianna feel safe saying yes. Guess wrong, and she might scare her off for good. On the fourth morning, Kylie found Arianna at the piano in the living room. The box sat closed on the music stand. Arianna's hands rested on the keys, not playing. "I keep waiting to feel ready," Arianna said. "But I don't know what ready is supposed to feel like." Kylie sat beside her on the bench. Her first instinct was to plan something. A speech. A perfect answer. She pushed it down. That instinct had hurt them before. "Then don't wait to feel ready," Kylie said. "Tell me what scares you. Right now. The true thing." Arianna's fingers pressed one soft note. "That you'll wake up and I'll just be the fan again. The girl who wrote letters. Not your partner. Not equal." Kylie's chest tightened. She had almost guessed money, or fame, or her mother. She'd have guessed wrong. She reached past Arianna and opened the box. The gold ring caught the window light, the red stone deep as blood. "You already have a lock I can't open," Kylie said. "Your own room, your own key. You speak for your half of the song to the label. That's not a fan. That's a partner." She took Arianna's hand. "I can't promise I'll never plan behind your back. But you can always call it out, like you have. That's the deal. Not the ring. The deal comes first." Arianna looked at their hands, then at the ring. "So it's not you asking. It's me asking." "You start when you're ready," Kylie said. "I already told you." Arianna lifted the ring from the box herself. She turned to face Kylie fully. "Then I'm asking. Marry me. Not because you're famous. Because you let me lock a door." Kylie laughed, wet and sudden. "Yes." Arianna slid the ring onto Kylie's finger, not her own. Kylie stared at it. She'd bought it for Arianna. Arianna had turned it into her own question. "I want you to wear it," Arianna said. "So the world knows I chose you too." Kylie's hand shook. She thought of the label, her mother, the release date, the whole waiting machine outside these walls. None of it had touched this. This one thing had stayed only theirs. Then her phone buzzed on the piano. Her mother. The subject line glowed on the screen: the label had seen the engagement rumor. They wanted a statement before the fifteenth. Kylie looked at the ring on her finger. "They already know," she said. "Someone talked."