Page 76 of Blue Moon Love

The room was filled with my friends and family dressed as Teenage Ninja Turtles, Madonna, Prince, Mario and Luigi, Flashdance, Bill and Ted, Clark Griswold and Christie Brinkley, Indiana Jones, Ferris Bueller, Rambo, Beetlejuice, Steve Urkel, and my favorite, besides Sam’s Jake Ryan of course, was Brady Calhoun as John Cusack’s character from Say Anything. He had the trench and was holding a boom box over his head.

Everywhere I looked, I saw a different ’80s icons.

I looked up at Sam in disbelief. “How long have you been planning this?”

“Since I read your diary.”

“Really?” I sniffed back the emotion choking me.

He nodded but before I could ask more questions, people swarmed around me. The next couple of hours were a blur of taking pictures, dancing, laughing and eating. I kept asking everyone how Sam had done this, and they all gave me the same answer, “He has his ways.”

I was talking to Tami Lynn and her husband Emmitt, who were dressed as Peg and Al Bundy from Married with Children, when I felt Sam’s arms wrap around me as he asked them, “Can I borrow the birthday girl?”

“Of course!” Tami Lynn enthused.

I started to turn around to face him, but he stopped me and put his hand over my eyes.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I reached up and touched his wrist.

“It’s a surprise,” he whispered in my ear.

“Another one?”

I wasn’t sure I could handle any more surprises.

He guided me in what felt like three big circles before, finally, we stopped.

Then, he whispered against my ear, “Happy birthday,” and dropped his hands.

My eyes took a second to adjust but when they did, I saw that I was standing in front of a dining room table in the center of the room with a birthday cake that had lit candles on it, just like the final scene in the movie.

“Oh my gosh!” I started laugh-crying again as Sam helped me up on the table and then climbed on too, so he was sitting across from me just like the characters had.

“Make a wish,” Sam leaned forward and repeated the same line from the movie.

“What if it already came true?” I replied, knowing that everyone around us would just think I was quoting the movie but he and only he would know the exact wish that had come true. I was no longer carrying my V-card.

“Then maybe it’s time for another one.” He grinned, going off script, as he reached inside his pocket.

“What are you talking…” My words trailed off when he lifted his hand, and I saw he was holding my grandmother’s wedding ring.

Which meant my parents knew that he was going to do this. I looked out into the crowd and saw my mom giving me two thumbs up, and my dad wiping his forefinger and thumb beneath his eyes.

When I looked back at Sam, I saw that my dad wasn’t the only one tearing up. He was a little misty-eyed as well. “I never thought I would do this, but if I did, I always thought I’d be getting down on one knee. But we’ve never done things the traditional way so I thought this was more us.”

I nodded my head up and down.

“Kenna, you have been my best friend since I was eight years old. I loved you even before I knew what love really was. We grew up together and spent most of that time denying how we felt about each other. Sorry, guys.” Sam looked around at the crowd, who were all chuckling. When he looked back at me, he grinned. “Sometimes I feel like we wasted a lot of time, but then I think of what we have, of us, of our foundation of friendship, and I’m not sure I would change a thing.”

“I would!” my mom shouted. “I want to be a nonna!”

“We’re working on it, Ma!” Sam responded, and the room erupted in cheers again.

I shook my head as I laughed.

When Sam looked back at me this time, he took a deep breath. “I have more to say, but hopefully, I’ll have a lifetime to do it because I don’t want another second to pass without asking you, Kenna Alessia Hale, will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” I leaned over the cake and kissed Sam.

When I leaned back, he slid the ring on my finger. “I love you, my pretty girl.”

“I love you, too.” I kissed him again as everyone cheered and applauded and one more time, I asked, “How did you do this?”

“I have my ways.” He grinned.

Those four words used to infuriate me, now, they weren’t so bad.

THE END

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