The sand, the sun, and the surf never looked as good as they do now. I walked out of the hotel and right onto the beach in Maui. The band’s national tour finally came to an end. It’d been a long year, but we managed to get through the trials, the tribulations, the fights, and the make-ups.
The group went their separate ways for the month-long vacation before the international tour began. The album went platinum, and they were recognized everywhere they went.
The song ‘The Reason Why’ reached the top of the charts and was to be featured in an upcoming love story that some producers were making in Hollywood.
I’d finally gotten the whole story of what had gone on concerning the college's ‘raffle’ tickets. It seemed my dear Hunter had paid the college to hold the event and make sure that I won. He had this whole thing planned out without even knowing if I would go to the show. So, that’s where Joshua came into play. He was the one who had to make sure I would be there and that I would get onto the stage.
Hunter said he had never been nervous in front of a crowd until that night. The song was the first slow, sweet love song he’d ever written, and he didn’t know how I or the crowd were going to take it.
Well, of course, like everything else he’d ever written and performed, the fans and I loved it.
Two well-defined arms came around me, and I leaned back into Hunter’s chest.
“Going in without me?” Hunter kissed the back of my neck and then took my hand.
The sun was setting over the water, giving everything around it an orange glow. We made our way slowly down to the shoreline and gazed at the beauty around us.
“You know.” Hunter turned me so that I was facing him. “We have the big world tour coming up next month.”
I nodded.
“And there are some countries that frown upon couples staying together in the same hotel room if they aren’t legally married.”
I’d never heard of such a thing. It seemed foreign countries were more open to that sort of situation than where we came from. Maybe he was thinking of a way that I couldn’t go, and he could have some time away from me. We’d been together day and night, and there had been some long, steamy nights, but maybe we did need to be apart for a while—well, maybe. I just wasn’t too clear on what he was trying to insinuate with all of this.
Suddenly afraid, I gazed at the ground
“Hey.” Hunter lifted my chin.
I have a million emotions coursing through me right now. My eyes met his, and I could see he had something else to say.
“You know that I love you, right?”
I knew what was coming next. It would be the old, ‘I love you, but we need to have some time away from each other’ line, which I’d seen way too many times on movies and TV shows. I knew what was going to happen next.
‘Why didn’t I see this coming?’
Hunter dropped to one knee and held my hands in his. “Will you marry me?”
I gasped as my shocked gaze dropped to where he knelt. Then my tears started to fall and my whole body began to tremble. I couldn’t even nod or form any words that would tell him how I felt.
Hunter then pulled out a ring box from his front pocket and opened it up.
When I saw the ring, I cried even harder.
He slid the diamond, heart-shaped ring onto my ring finger and stood up. His arms circled my waist and pulled me tightly against his body.
Finally, after a few minutes of holding onto each other, we stepped away from the embrace.
I felt sure my face was all red and blotchy. My nose was running, and I kept hiccupping while trying to regain my breath from crying, but overall, I was ecstatic, surprised, stunned, shocked, and completely in love with the man standing before me.
I cupped Hunter’s face and pulled him down to my level. I placed a tender kiss on his lips and whispered the words, “I will.”