Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 55 of 78

The vows were sealed. Kylie set the box on the table and looked at her own hand. The engagement ring sat on her finger, the red heart-shaped stone bright in the morning light. Arianna had placed it there herself. Kylie smiled at the memory. Then the smile dropped. On Saturday she would stand before Arianna and give her a ring. She had only one. It was already on her own hand. She pulled it off and turned it over. This was the ring Arianna chose for her. She could not hand it back and call it a gift. That would erase what Arianna had done. But there was no store on the island. Kara would not fly to a jeweler and risk being seen. Kylie had two days and no ring to give. She carried the ring to the pool and sat on the tiled edge by the fountain. Water fell in a thin sheet behind her. She thought about what a ring was supposed to mean. Not the gold. The choice. She had spent a year hiding behind objects she bought. She would not solve this by buying another. Then she remembered the box beside her vows. Inside it sat the paired keepsake she had packed weeks ago. She went back inside and opened the lid. There it was: a second gold band with the same red heart, cut to match the one on her finger. She had ordered the pair when she first bought the engagement ring. She had forgotten she owned two. Kylie held both rings in her palm. One she wore. One she would give. They were made to sit side by side. She had planned for this without knowing it, the way Arianna had ordered a matching gown a year before either of them spoke of a wedding. Arianna came in from the shade, the puppy asleep against her chest. "You keep going quiet," she said. "What now?" Kylie closed her hand over the second ring and kept the first one hidden. "I almost gave you the wrong ring on Saturday," she said. "The one you put on my finger. I thought that was all I had." Arianna set the puppy on the blanket. "You'd have given me my own ring back?" "I won't now." Kylie slid her engagement ring back on. Then she opened her palm and showed the matching band. "I bought two. I forgot. This one is yours. Saturday I put it on you." Arianna looked at the pair, one on Kylie's hand, one in her palm. She did not reach for it. "Keep it in the box," she said. "I want to feel it for the first time up there." Kylie nodded and closed the ring into the box beside her sealed vows. She had the words. Now she had the ring. Two days remained, and nothing was missing.