Penny let out a huff of breath, slowing her pace from a brisk jog to a walk. She'd kept up with the man at her side for as long as she could, but she thought her lungs might explode if she tried to run a single step further along the stone-paved paths of Battery Park.

She held up a hand to signal to him, and she watched in relief as David slowed down beside her. Her breath was coming in short, loud gasps, but he'd barely even broken a sweat. He pulled up now and took the hand she held up to him, lacing his fingers through hers.

He didn't stop completely, but she thought she could manage to keep up with his slow saunter. They strolled slowly side-by-side, and she glanced up at his face after a moment. She expected him to tease her about her tortured breathing, but he didn't seem to notice. His eyes were somewhere far away, looking off across the water of the New York City Harbor.

He'd tensed up before, when she first led him into the park and he realized where he was. He'd stood there, paralyzed, and she'd held her breath as she waited to see how he would react.

"I'll be right here next to you," she had promised, and he seemed to accept her words. He'd merely nodded in acquiescence and then took off running again. She'd let him set the pace, and his tension had seemed to melt away as he relaxed into the rhythm of the run. But she worried now that his fears might be catching up with him again. She peered into his face, trying to read his expression. "Are you OK?" she asked.

"I'm good," he replied, giving her hand a squeeze. Then he turned his head to look at her and broke into a smile that brought out the crinkles at the corners of his eyes. "Good," he said, nodding firmly. "It feels really good to be back here."

She smiled, wanting desperately to gloat: "See, I told you so!" But she was panting too hard to form the words.

His smile deepened further as he took in her distress. "Are you OK, Penny?"

She could only nod. She pulled to a complete stop for a moment and rested both hands on her hips, struggling to bring more air into her lungs.

"Am I gonna need to do CPR?" he asked.

"Maybe," she managed to pant. "Do you know CPR?"

He shrugged. "I'm pretty good at the mouth-to-mouth part."

She could only grimace in response. He took her hand again and gave it a tug forward. "Come on," he said. "Keep walking or your muscles will cramp."

She glared back, but she allowed him to pull her along the path beside him.

"You're so out of shape!" he crowed, when she'd finally caught her breath enough to carry on a conversation.

"Couldn't afford the gym membership."

He shook his head in disapproval. "No excuses, Penny. Fitness means discipline. Rain or shine. Sick or-"

"Yeah, yeah. Sick or healthy. Blah blah blah." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Sorry if I decided to make my first priority food and shelter."

"Sure. Food and shelter." He nodded, the corners of his mouth still vibrating with barely suppressed laughter. "Right after your annual contribution to the Anonymous Treadmills For Millionaires Fund?"

She bit her lip. "You needed a treadmill," she said, trying and failing to keep a straight face. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

David gave her hand another squeeze. "It was a terrible idea," he replied. He let go of her hand and slipped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "But it probably saved my life," he added with a begrudging smile. "So thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied. She looped her arm around his waist, and they walked together arm-in-arm in companionable silence.

When David spoke again, his voice had lost its teasing edge and took on a more contemplative tone. "So tell me," he said. "What's your specialty going to be?"

"What do you mean?"

"In med school," he continued. "Don't you have to pick a specialty?"

"Oh!" She shook her head. "No, not really. Not until the third year."

"I was thinking lung surgeon."

"Thoracic surgery?"

"Sure. That has a nice ring to it."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Any particular reason?"

"I think I might make it a rule," he nodded seriously. "Only date lung surgeons. You never know when your lungs might randomly stop working."

"I don't know, David," she replied. "I was thinking more along the lines of psychiatry."

He shot her sideways glance. "Psych?" he answered slowly. "Also useful, I suppose.... But I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to treat yourself. You know that, right?"

She let go of his waist and tried to shove him sideways, but his reflexes were too quick. He caught her arm with a laugh and began dragging her toward the railing that ran along the water beside them. She allowed him to lead her to the edge and turned to face him. He held her captive there, gripping the railing on either side of her waist, with the small of her back pressed up against the barrier.

For a moment, she looked back over her shoulder, taking in the view behind her. The early morning fog had lifted, and the water sparkled with sunlight as she gazed across the harbor at the Statue of Liberty and the New Jersey waterfront beyond.

"Maybe we should move to Jersey," she mused. She turned her face back toward him and lifted her arms around his shoulders.

"Why would we possibly do that?" he murmured, pressing his body closer.

"Haven't you heard? Hoboken's the new Brooklyn." She pursed her lips and ran her fingers into his hair, pushing it away from his forehead so it stuck up straight on top of his head. "We could be hipsters together."

He groaned. "See, this is why I had the rule against Brooklyn girls."

"What's so bad about Brooklyn?"

"Spend half your life commuting on the subway, for one thing." He shuddered at the thought.

She gave his chest a little shove, but not hard enough to move him. "I thought you were a man of the people," she said.

"Who told you that?"

"You did."

"Did I?"

She nodded. "About seven hundred times. You know you make the same three jokes over and over again?"

He scrunched up his forehead, considering. "What are the other two?"

"You have a romantic soul?"

He picked up a piece of her hair that had broken free from her ponytail and smoothed it behind her ear. "That one might just turn out to be true."

She opened her mouth to reply, but she lost her train of thought as his finger trailed along her jaw and traced her lower lip.

"And what's the third one?" he asked her softly.

"What?"

"What's the third joke I always make?" he asked. His mouth hovered a few inches from hers, and Penny felt her breathing start to quicken yet again.

"It's escaping me at the moment," she muttered, her eyes glued to his lips. But he didn't seem to be listening in any case. He closed the distance between them, and her arms tightened around his neck, beckoning for more, as his lips pressed softly against hers.

He broke the kiss after a moment, though, and Penny swallowed a sigh of disappointment as his mouth abandoned hers. He pulled back instead and looked down into her face. "Anyway, Hoboken wouldn't be very convenient for commuting to Yale," he said.

She blinked, forcing her mind to process the words and comprehend their meaning. Yale. Med school. They'd been talking about med school. "Neither is the financial district," she replied.

He nodded. "Might have to move uptown." He sighed, shifting his gaze away from her face and out over the water. "Unless of course you want to bag this whole med school plan. Come be my assistant again."

She narrowed her eyes. "You have an assistant."

"Personal assistant." He bent and pecked her lightly on the lips. "Very personal."

"I don't know. How much would the position pay?"

He shrugged. "I'm thinking half my worldly possessions - give or take."

She met his eyes for a moment. Was he serious? Just joking around? She couldn't tell, and she had a feeling that he didn't quite know himself. In any case, it didn't matter. She knew what the answer had to be, and she gave her head a little shake. "I have to go to med school, David. It's important to me."

He nodded. "Good," he said. "I want you to go to med school."

"You do, right?"

"Sure," he said. "Dr. Penny. That sounds good. I don't want a trophy wife."

She raised her eyebrows at his words, but she kept her tone playful in response. "Maybe you should bag the whole businessman thing and be my trophy husband."

"Dr. Penny and her boy toy?"

She patted him on his cheek. "You wouldn't have to worry your pretty little head about money, ever again."

"Can I have a purse poodle? And a Barney's store account?"

"You can have anything you want, baby." She closed her eyes and puckered her lips, tilting her chin up toward him.

"God, I missed this mouth," he said, and he laughed as he tasted her lips again. Then he leaned forward and pressed his nose into her hair, inhaling deeply. "I don't do very well without you, Penny."

"No," she sighed. "Neither do I."

"Penelope." He lifted his head again and looked down at her again, his face serious now as she met his eyes. "We're going to do this, right? You. Me. Med school. Whatever comes after med school...."

"Residency," she supplied.

"Residency. But you can do all that and still take up residency with me, right?"

"Maybe we should convert your place to a two-bedroom. We could put up one of those temporary walls...."

"No." He shook his head. "One bedroom. One bed. Permanent residency."

"That's what you want?"

"That'll do for now."

"OK then. Done." She stuck out her hand to shake on it, but he ignored her hand. He kissed her instead, slowly and thoroughly. She'd finally gotten her breath back from the run, but she lost it again entirely by the time he came up for air.

"Wow," she whispered breathlessly. "You are good at the mouth-to-mouth part."

"Why yes, Ms. Stewart," he answered with a grin. "I've got all sorts of skills you know nothing about."

She touched his cheek again. He had one corner of his mouth raised in a half-smile, and she smoothed her thumb down the crease that had formed alongside his mouth. "I suppose you have your uses-" she started to reply. But she broke off, and her eyes widened as a new thought suddenly struck her. "There," she said. "That's it."

"That's what?"

She bit her lower lip and worried it between her teeth for a moment. "I just remembered the third one."

"The third what?"

She didn't answer him - not right away. Instead, she broke free from his grasp and set out jogging on the path back toward his apartment. She tossed a coy smile over her shoulder as he started chasing after her.

For a moment, she ran with her eyes closed and her face tipped upward, basking in the warm glow of morning sun. "That's the third one," she said softly to herself. She could hear his voice inside her head, saying that line he loved to use - that joke she had a feeling she might be hearing for quite some time to come.

She heard his footfalls pulling up beside her, and she turned to meet his eyes.

David opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't make a sound just then. She'd been running with her eyes closed, but she'd turned to him as he pulled up next to her, with a smile so bright that the sight of it just sent a bolt of pure, unadulterated joy piercing straight through his chest.

"See," she said.

She was laughing at him. That much he could see. Out of breath again now, but still laughing at him. Aways laughing at him, that mouth of hers. Always had, right from the day he first met her. And he knew, in that moment, that couldn't live without the sight of it. He needed her laughter - he needed her love - just as surely as the air that he breathed.

"See, boss," she panted, and he recognized his own words as she laughed them right back in his face. "I knew there was a reason I keep you around."

THE END

Dear Readers: Keep going for Epilogues! If you enjoyed this book, please be sure to follow me and check out the SPIN-OFF book No Kissing Allowed, starring Penny's friend Cora. Now completed and shortlisted for 2022 Watty Awards!

Your support means the world to me. Thank you for reading this book! 💕