Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 50 of 78

The island was safe, but Kylie couldn't shake one worry. She had agreed to let a stranger marry them based on a single phone call. Kara had a warm voice and a good name. That was all. Arianna trusted her, but Arianna had met her once, years ago. Kylie had never seen Kara's face across a room. She kept picturing the ceremony, the license in a stranger's hands, and one loose word ending everything. "I need to meet her first," Kylie told Arianna. "Before the island. Before the paper. I trusted a friend once and lost six months to it. I can't hand over the one place we have left to a voice on a phone." Arianna didn't argue. She called again and asked. Kara agreed to come that afternoon, no cape, no fuss. Kylie waited by the manor's back windows. She expected a car. Instead a figure dropped from the sky and landed soft on the lawn, boots barely bending the grass. Blonde, blue-eyed, a red skirt and a red cape settling behind her. She waved like a neighbor. "Hope I didn't scare the dogs," Kara said. Kylie opened the door. Up close, Kara looked younger than she'd sounded. She stepped inside and crouched at once to greet the shiba, letting him sniff her hand before she touched him. She didn't reach for her phone. She didn't glance around the room for cameras or valuables. She just scratched the puppy's ears. "I brought this," Kara said. She set a folded paper on the piano. The marriage license. "Figured you'd want to see it's real before you saw me." Kylie picked it up. Her name and Arianna's, waiting for a date. "You could have posted a photo of this," she said. "You could have posted a photo of my house just now." "I could have," Kara said. "I've flown people out of worse and never said a word. Your island is one afternoon of my life. It's your whole one." She stood. "I don't keep what isn't mine to keep." Kylie studied her face. She had learned to read people who lied while smiling. Malia had smiled for six months. Kara wasn't performing. She'd knelt for the dog before she'd looked at Kylie. Arianna slipped her hand into Kylie's. "Told you," she said quietly. Kylie set the license down. "Saturday," she said. "You fly it in yourself. Nobody else touches it." "Nobody else," Kara agreed. She looked at the red gown box on the chair. "Wear that. You'll want to." When Kara left, she rose straight up and was gone before Kylie reached the window. No trail. No sound but wind. Kylie let out a breath she'd held for days. The last risk was closed. She had looked a stranger in the eye and decided to trust her. Now only the drive to the port stood between them and the island, and four hours of open road offered plenty of ways to be seen.