Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 57 of 78

The ring was safe now. But Kylie walked out to the pool and saw the real problem she had ignored all week. The wedding was Saturday. There was nowhere on the island to hold it. The house had rooms and a shore and a fountain, but no place set apart for two people to say vows. She had brought dresses, a ring, a doctor, and an officiant. She had built no altar. She stood at the edge of the sparkling pool. The fountain sprayed thin lines of water into the air. Palms swayed along the bright sand. It was beautiful, but beauty was not a ceremony. She could not order a wedding arch to a hidden island. No delivery truck could reach them. No stranger could set up chairs without learning where they were. So she would build it herself. She had two days. Kylie walked the grounds and looked at everything with new eyes. The stretch of sand past the pool faced the open water. The fountain stood behind it. She decided the vows would happen there, on the sand, with the water at their backs. She carried what the house held. She dragged two tall potted palms from the entry and set them apart to mark a gate. She found white linens in a closet and draped them between the pots, tying the corners so the cloth caught the wind. It was not an arch, but it framed a space that had been empty before. Her back ached by afternoon. She kept going. She hauled two carved benches from the terrace and lined them along the sand for the few who would come. She set a small table where Kara could rest the marriage license during the ceremony. Arianna found her at dusk, arms crossed, watching. Kylie's face went tight. She had done it again. Built something big and told no one. "I know," Kylie said before Arianna spoke. "I should have asked you." Arianna walked into the framed space and turned slowly. "You made this today?" "There was no place to marry you. I couldn't buy one. So I made one." Kylie held out her hand. "But it's not finished. You decide the rest." Arianna took her hand and stepped through the linen gate. She looked at the water, then back at the two draped palms. "Move the benches closer," she said. "I want them near enough to hear us." They moved the benches together, side by side, until dark. The space was set. Sand, water, cloth, and two palms leaning toward one center. Kylie stood inside it and understood it was done. On Saturday they would stand here. The island had no ceremony space, so she had built one with her own hands, and Arianna had shaped the last of it. Two days left. Now they only needed to walk into it.