Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 65 of 78

Kylie climbed the last steps with wet legs and dry hands. The boat was gone. The altar stood clean between the palms. She had one hour and one thing left to do: get into her wedding dress. She pushed open the bedroom door. The red gown hung on its hook, gold hearts stitched down the front. She reached behind her back for the zipper and stopped. The dress fastened up the spine. She could not reach it alone. She pulled at the fabric. Her fingers slipped. The zipper caught halfway and would not move. Arianna was down at the beach, tuning her guitar, and Kylie had promised not to be seen until the gate. Kara was on the sand. There was no one to call, no assistant, no one she trusted with this. She turned in the mirror and yanked again. The dress bunched at her shoulder blades and stuck. A knock came at the door. "It's me," a voice said. "I brought the ring box up. Thought you might want it near." Dr. Carter. The doctor who had flown out a day early, who held Arianna's ring in her pocket, who would sign her name on the license as their witness. Kylie had trusted her with the one thing she could not risk losing. She looked at the caught zipper and made the choice fast. "Come in," Kylie said. "I need your hands." Dr. Carter stepped inside, still in her plain travel clothes, the small ring box balanced on her palm. She looked at Kylie's back and set the box on the dresser without a word. "Hold still. You've got it twisted." She freed the fabric with two fingers and drew the zipper up in one clean pull. The gown closed around Kylie's ribs and held. Kylie breathed out. She turned and saw herself finished in the mirror, red and gold from shoulder to floor. "I've fixed every other problem this week," she said. "I forgot I couldn't dress myself." Dr. Carter almost smiled. She smoothed the fabric flat across Kylie's shoulders, quick and sure, the way she must handle a hundred careful things a day. "Brides never can. That's why someone stands behind them." She picked the ring box back up and held it out. "This stays with me until your line about the dog. I've got it." "I know you do," Kylie said. She meant it. A week ago she had trusted no one behind her back. Now a woman she'd known for days had zipped her into the dress she would marry Arianna in. Dr. Carter checked her watch. "Guitar's tuned. She's ready when you are." She went to the door and paused. "Go marry her." Kylie looked once more at the mirror. The dress was closed. Nothing stood between her and the gate now but the walk itself.