When she finally could breathe again, she cried, "Oh, Dave! Of course I'll marry you!"
He hugged and kissed her, and then took the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger.
"We've been going together since high school," he said, "And now I'll be graduating from college in six weeks, and I'll be working full time. Mr. Gregson offered me a full time job at the engineering firm. That's why I couldn't just take off from work this week. He had asked me to work over Spring Break several weeks ago, and I told him I would, so I couldn't go back on my word. Then yesterday he called me into his office and asked if I'd like to work full time after I graduate in May."
"Oh, Dave! That's wonderful!"
"Yeah, it's really great news. I'll be able to save a lot of money between graduation and our wedding. Oh, by the way, when would you like to get married?"
Emma's first reply was, "Right away!" but then she laughed. "I know that's not going to happen, so why don't we plan on getting married next year in June? That gives us plenty of time to plan the wedding, save up our money, and find a place to live."
"That sounds like a good idea," Dave agreed.
The couple lingered on the beach a little while longer, and then finally decided to go inside and tell the others their exciting news.
They found the others at the table talking.
"Well, we thought we'd have to leave without you," Josh teased.
Kacey noticed a special twinkle in their eyes and asked, "So, how was the beach?"
Emma smiled and said, "You won't believe what I found on the beach!"
She held up her hand so they could see the ring on her finger.
The girls cried out in surprise and jumped up to hug Emma while Josh and Rick pumped Dave's hand and congratulated him. Emma showed off her ring proudly, and Ava said,
"You'd better not let that ring out of your sight back at the hotel or it might get robbed!"
"Don't worry, I’m never taking it off!" Emma promised.
Kacey suddenly jumped up and exclaimed, "That's it! I've got it!"
"Got what?" Josh asked.
"That's how we'll catch the robbers! Emma's ring is the perfect bait!"
Emma covered her hand, "Oh, no! You're not getting this ring off my finger to use as bait!"
Kacey shook her head, "Don't worry, we won't need to. All we need to do is make sure Juan and his friends know that you have the ring. Then somehow we'll let them know that you've left it in the hotel room, like maybe while swimming at the pool. Then you guys can hide inside our room. If the robbers come in looking for the ring, you can catch them!"
Ava nodded, "That just might work. But we'd better let Security know what we're doing so they can take them into custody until the police arrive."
"But what if we're wrong and it's not Juan and his friends who are robbing things?" Emma asked.
Kacey shrugged, "Then no harm is done. At least we can try."
"Yeah!" Ava agreed, "We need to plan this out carefully so we don't let them slip away."
"Let's go back to our hotel and work out the details," Kacey said.