Eternal

“Clams,” Jaymeson chanted. “Barbaric little ritual. Who the hell has a clambake for their rehearsal dinner? And why does nobody believe in bachelor parties anymore?”

Pris rolled her eyes next to us. “It’s cute when you pretend like you aren’t a trained house cat. Hurry, Jay. Jump!”

“How high.” He laughed out loud and bumped his wife with his shoulder.

“You guys are pathetic,” I grumbled

“You just keep telling yourself that.” Pris tilted her head and me and winked. “Oh, and by the way…. enjoy tonight.”

“I do love shellfish,” I said, slowly trying to figure out why everyone was acting so weird.

By the time Jaymeson set me down, I was sore from being carried on his shoulders the entire way down to the beach. We couldn’t technically rent public space, but the mayor had been nice enough to rope off an area for us to have our dinner without having to deal with paparazzi, though I still saw a few cameras flash. I knew it was just part of the life I was signing on to.

Speakers were set up on either side of the white tent, and there were a few tables decorated with plain white linen. My parents were already sitting down, having a glass of wine along with my grandparents and a few aunts and uncles. All in all, it seemed… normal, not at all protein-bar-or-coffee-worthy.

When I turned back around to glance at the boardwalk, Gabe and Demetri were making their way slowly toward us.

And they had a crowd of around one-hundred people behind them.

Holy crap, they were going to get mobbed!

I opened my mouth to scream just as Wes wrapped his arm around me and whispered, “Enjoy it. I’m pretty blood was spilled between the two of them.”

“Enjoy what?” I whispered once he removed his hand.

But Wes merely smiled, offered a wink, then jogged off toward Kiersten and pulled her into his arms.

Saylor giggled and pointed at the boardwalk again.

Just as music started blaring over the speakers.

It was “Steal my Girl” by One Direction… and Demetri was singing it. With a huge grin, he waved and sang.

“She be my queen since we be sixteen…”

Gabe gave him a high five and sang the next verse in his smooth caramel voice.

“I know. I know for sure… Everybody wanna steal my girl! Everybody wanna take her heart away, couple billion in the whole wide world find another one because she belongs to me!”

Jaw open, I stared in complete shock.

Demetri wasn’t just singing with Ashton Hyde. He was singing One Direction with Ashton Hyde. Hell had officially frozen over in front of my very eyes.

“Every jaw drop when she’s in those jeans, alright.”

Demetri crooned as Ashton harmonized, and then they stopped walking.

The group behind them froze in slow motion.

Then jumped into the air in unison as the chorus picked up.

Holy crap.

Holy freaking crap.

It was a flash mob.

He was flash-mobbing me!

The song continued and then abruptly stopped as they were about halfway across the beach.

The beat changed into something slower.

“I’m in love with that girl… so don’t be mad at me.”

And Justin Timberlake. Demetri was singing and then rapping while Ashton did backup.

The song changed for a third time as the group moved forward.

“Every time that you get undressed I hear symphonies in my head. I wrote this song, just, looking at you, uh oh yeah the drums they swing low and the trumpets they go…”

Honest-to-God trumpets sounded, and when the crowd parted, an entire band walked through the sand, trumpets going from right to left with trombones.

“Is it weird that I hear violins whenever you’re gone?”

Violins appeared behind the people playing trumpets, while Gabe pulled a guitar from someone next to him and started playing.

Demetri didn’t take his eyes off me as he sang the bridge.

The trumpets kept sounding.

“They go…”

He smiled, and then he and Gabe started marching toward us. Someone tossed a conductor stick into the air. Demetri grabbed it, along with a top hat, and they marched, freaking marched toward us still singing, the band still playing.

Tears of laughter and excitement poured down my cheeks.

Finally, Demetri was almost close enough for me to reach out.

Instead, he fell to his knees and started singing the high part in his falsetto voice.

“Every time that you get undressed I hear symphonies in my head…”

He reached for my hand and kissed it, continuing with the song.

“The drums they swing low and the trumpets they go…”

The trumpets played a little longer, and then the song shifted again.

“One hundred and five is the number that comes to my head when I think of the years I want to spend with you…”

“Marry Me” by Jason Derulo crooned from Demetri’s lips.

He hated singing other people’s songs.

But he was singing some of my favorites, the ones that I’d picked out for some of our after-party wedding music — the ones he’d denied and said he’d rather be run over by a car.

As if on cue with my thoughts, Gabe held up his finger while Demetri sang and then pulled out a toy car and ran it in front of Demetri’s face.

“You’re the love of my life.”

He pressed his hands against his chest. The words flowing from him sounded like perfection.