CARNIES! EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

A COUPLE OF WEEKS LATER

Today me and Nick got engaged. He told me he even asked dad if he could.
We’d been walking by a river in a neighboring town while the others were at the soda shop, and he just did it. Right there.
He kissed me and picked me up, setting me on a rock, and knelt down. I hadn’t thought anything of it until he pulled out a black box and opened it.
"Kenna," he’d said, "will you marry me?"
I squealed and jumped forward, hugging him, and said, "Of course!"He put the ring on my finger, and I looked at it, smiling. It sparkled in the sunlight.
He laughed and stood, me still in his arms, twirling me around. I wiggled out of his hands and ran forward a bit, turning back to look at his baffled expression.
"I’ve gotta tell Rosa!!" I said, then started running back to the town, his laughter following me there.

I ran into the soda shop, and saw Rosa sitting there on a stool, drinking a malted milkshake through a straw. "Rosa!" I squealed, and she looked up at me.
"Omigod. He did it, didn’t he?!"
I nodded, and her face broke out in a smile.
"Finally!" Malachi said, and went out with his coke can in his hand to go talk to Nick.
Dad came in from behind in the kitchen, the waitress following him with a blush painted on her cheeks. She looked a few years younger than him at most, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Dad!" I said, and went to hug him. His arms tightened, almost shutting off my breathing, in a big bear hug. I’d missed those before.

"So, he proposed?"
"Ahuh."
"Good. But, I think we’re gonna have to get ready for another one." He said, whispering the last one in my ear. I looked back at Rosa and Kevin flirting, then at the waitress behind the bar, and had no clue which one he was talking about. But, that didn’t matter because life had finally become something worth living.