Page 20 of Time Stops With You

“Actually, there is.”

“And what way is that?”

“It’s a little… unconventional.”

“Trust me, Mr. Cullen, nothing you can say at this moment will surprise?—”

“Marry me.”

Three

CULLEN

I don’t know what possesses me to utter those words.

Maybe it’s the sobering conversation I had with Darrel Hastings when he challenged me to make my mark on the world.

Maybe it’s the fact that Nardi Davis is a complete and total stranger yet I’m unusually at ease in her presence.

Maybe it’s that Iamgoing to die and being so keenly aware of my mortality is emboldening.

Whatever the reason, I don’t take the words back.

Nardi blinks thick lashes over and over. Her slackened jaw and glazed eyes would mar a less impressionable face. Unfortunately, her rich, cocoa-brown skin, arched eyebrows and full lips is, by all standards, ‘conventionally attractive’.

Not that her beauty—which I didn’t expect in the least—has any bearing on my proposal. I would have proposed had she been severely deformed.

My goal is to make a promising, coding genius my legacy and Nardi Davis is simply the gatekeeper to that happy ending.

“I-I’m sorry.” She leans forward, flabbergasted. “I must have heard wrong.”

“You didn’t.”

“No, I did.” Her jeans rustle against the couch as Nardi flops back. Sunlight glints against the gold bracelet wrapped around her delicate wrist as she brings a hand to her temple and massages.

“I apologize if I’ve offended you. That wasn’t my intent.”

“Your intent was to give me a heart attack then?”

“No, absolutely not.”

“Are you joking with me?”

“I’m a dying man, Ms. Davis. I don’t have time for games.”

“Look, Mr…” She falters.

“Cullen.”

“Cullen.”

A nervous, happy thrill runs over my skin when she says my name, but then she follows it up with a stare so pitying that my stomach churns.

“I’d like to suggest counseling.”

“I had a session this morning.” My lips turn down at the memory.

“Good. That’s good. Keep going to those.” She bobs her head tightly. “Life is hard. I get it. Trust me. I’m an immigrant from Belize and it took meyearsto save up for my green card. I worked odd jobs, cleaning houses and being treated like trash until I could build myself a better life.”

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