Once in a Lifetime Read Online Free PDF

feet were curled up under her and the hours had flown like minutes. The sun had just set over Central Park, and they had been together since before noon.
    "I don't think I'll ever get tired of you, Daff. Will you marry me?"
    She laughed at the question, watching his face, and she noticed something strangely serious in his eyes. "In addition to dinner or instead of?"
    "I'm serious, you know."
    "You're crazy."
    "No"--he looked at her matter-of-factly--"actually, I'm smart as hell. I graduated in the top five of my class, I have a damn good job, and one day I'm going to be a powerful and successful lawyer. You're going to write best-selling books, and"--he narrowed his eyes as though considering the matter further-- "we'll probably have three children. We should have two, but you're so damn young we'll probably sneak in a third before you're thirty. What do you say?"
    She couldn't stop laughing now. "I still say you're crazy."
    "All right, I concede. We'll make it two children. And a dog. A golden lab." She laughed and shook her head. "All right. A French poodle ... a Chihuahua?"
    "Will you stop?"
    "Why?" He looked suddenly like a little boy, and she felt the same leap in her heart she had felt all afternoon at his side. "Don't you like me?"
    "I think you're terrific. And definitely crazy. Is this the line you use on everyone, or only innocent students like me?"
    He looked totally serious and perfectly calm. "I haven't proposed to anyone before, Daphne. Ever." He leaned back against the couch. "When are we going to get married?"
    "When I'm thirty." She crossed her arms and looked at him with amusement as they sat looking at each other from opposite ends of the couch, but he solemnly shook his head.
    "When you're thirty, I'll be thirty-eight. I'll be too old."
    "And I'm too young. Call me in ten years." She looked suddenly womanly and sure of herself and very, very strong and he loved it, as he moved slowly toward her on the couch.
    "If I walked out of here right now, I would call you in ten minutes. If I could bring myself to wait that long. Now, will you marry me?"
    "No." But her insides turned to mush as he approached.
    "I love you, Daff. Even if you do think I'm crazy. But I'm not. And whether you believe me right now, or not, we're going to get married."
    "I don't have a penny to my name." She felt a need to tell him that, almost as if what he was saying was serious, as though he really meant it. But the craziest thing of all was that she knew he did.
    "I don't have a dime either, Daff. But we will one day. Both of us. And in the meantime we can live on those fabulous cookies and iced tea."
    "Are you serious, Jeff?" She suddenly looked at him with something very fragile in her eyes. Suddenly she had to know. Maybe he was only playing with her. And she hoped not.
    But his voice was hoarse and powerful and kind as he touched her cheek with one hand and reached out for her hand with the other. "Yes, I am. I know right at this moment that whatever happens between us, it'll be all right, Daff. I feel that. I could marry you tonight, and I know it would be right for us for the rest of our lives. Something like this only happens once in a lifetime. And I'm not going to let it go. If you fight me, I'll pursue you until you listen to me. Because I'm right and I know it." And after a silent moment between them, "And I think you know it too."
    Her eyes bore into his then, and he could see that there were tears hovering on her lashes. "I have to think about this ... I'm not sure I understand what happened."
    "I do. We fell in love. Simple as that. We could have waited another five years to find each other, or ten, but we didn't. I found you today, at that goddamn boring meeting, and sooner or later you're going to be my wife." He kissed her gently then, and stood up, still holding tightly to her hand. "And now I'm going to say good night, before I do something truly crazy, like attack you." She laughed at him then, and felt perfectly