Sudden Response (17 page)

that they'd ever really spent any time apart and he'd hated it. Every day the ache in his chest intensified until he didn't think he'd

survive another moment without her.

He'd tried calling her, but he only got her voicemail. The few times he swung by to see her hadn't gone well either. A fter the

third time she slammed the door shut in his face he'd gotten a little desperate and bought one of those milkshakes that she was

addicted to only to have the little brat snatch it out of his hand before slamming the door shut in his face.

Obviously she needed time and he'd give it to her if it meant that things would go back to the way things used to be. Of course

the fact that she couldn't get away from him and was stuck working with him for at least forty hours a week probably had

something to do with his calm acceptance of the cold shoulder she was giving him, but whatever. He got to spend time with her

and that's all that mattered.

She tossed her bag on the freshly made bed, grabbed a book and threw him a killing glare as she walked past him. He should

probably give her some space, he mused, but then again she'd had a week without him. He followed after her, knowing that

she'd probably kick his ass, but what the hell, it would be worth it just to see her smile.

Chapter 18

"Let me up," she whispered tightly as she struggled to get up, but the big jerk simply tightened his arm around her waist and

held her on his lap.

"Hold you tighter?" he asked, sounding put out. "Fine. I suppose I could do that."

Not laughing was one of the hardest things she'd done in a while, but somehow she managed it. She was mad at him, pissed

actually and she couldn't believe that he had the nerve to act like nothing was wrong, but this was Eric and they both knew that

she couldn't stay mad at him for long no matter how hard she tried.

A fter what the jerk did she really should stay good and mad at him for a long time, but she just couldn't. She hated the fact that

she'd pretty much forgiven him. He cared about her even if he was going about it in a dumb ass way. Instead of talking to her

he'd gone the high handed route, but that was Eric and he wasn't going to change and to be honest she didn't want him to.

That didn't mean he got to control her life. He didn't. He may think that he had a say in her life, but he didn't. A s much as she

appreciated him, Nathan and A lice, she was still very much on her own. She loved them more than anything, but she wasn't

their responsibility and sure as hell didn't want them to see her as the burden they got stuck with.

Eric might want to take care of her, but she didn't want to be his responsibility. That was the reason why they'd never moved in

together even when they were first starting out in life and sharing an apartment would have made sense. It was the same reason

why she worked two mind numbingly boring jobs to pay for EMT training even though A lice and Nathan both offered to pay

for it and why she refused to let anyone co-sign with her when she bought her house even though she probably would have

gotten a better mortgage if A lice had signed.

Her mother might have been comfortable with leaving everyone else to take care of her responsibility, but she never would be.

She liked taking care of herself. She loved knowing that she would never have to depend on another person again for anything

as long as she lived.

It was because she could take care of herself that she would never have to worry about coming home only to find her things

thrown out because someone didn't pay the bills. She would never have to worry about going hungry or being cold in the

winter. She paid her bills, bought her food, had no debt besides her mortgage and had money in the bank for an emergency and

paramedic school and last week that had been more than enough to allow her to sleep at night.

Now she was worried. She wasn't sure if it was because of the close call she had or what Eric said, but he had a valid point.

Not that she would ever tell him. That would only encourage him and his bossy ways, but she now realized that she needed a

backup in case something ever happened that prevented her from working as an EMT.

Her savings were decent and could probably hold her over for eight months, but that wasn't good enough. She never wanted to

struggle to pay the bills and she sure as hell didn't want to be put in the situation where she had to take a handout, especially

from A lice, Nathan, or Eric, her family. If it ever came to that she would split town, because she just couldn't become

someone's charity case.

Over the past couple of days she'd done a lot of thinking and decided that she'd use some of her savings to get more training.

She was going to keep her focus on emergency medical services, but she was going to make sure that if anything ever prevented

her from working on the ambulance then she'd have a career to fall back on.

"I wasn't done reading that page," Eric grumbled.

"You can read it after I'm done," she explained even as she turned the page back so the big baby could read it.

He snorted. "I don't read romance novels."

She snuggled closer to him, laying her head back on his shoulder so that he could see the book. "Um, you're reading a romance

novel now."

"No, I'm not."

"Then what do you call it?"

"Killing time," he said with a shrug.

"Uh huh, you could just as easily kill time by watching the game with the guys," she said, nodding towards the flat screen that

had everyone else's attention.

"Why would I do that when we're getting to the sex scene? Would you turn the page already?" he demanded impatiently.

"Sex?" one of the guys repeated and just like that she had ten guys standing behind her as they shoved each other out of the way

to get a better look.

This was why she never got to read during her downtime, she thought as she got to her feet, trying not laugh as the guys groaned

in disapproval. She rolled her eyes when she caught them pouting. "Here," she said, sighing as she tossed the book to Jim, a

firefighter in his thirties. "Just toss it on my bunk when you're done."

"Why the hell did you do that? We were just getting to the good part!" Eric bitched, moving to grab the book back only to find

the men gathered tightly around the book.

"A re you coming or not?" she asked, not bothering to look back as she made her way to the ambulance bay.

"Where are we going?" Eric asked as he quickly caught up with her.

"You're buying me breakfast," she informed him.

"No, I'm not," he said, opening the garage door for her.

She turned to glare up at him. "I don't know how the two of you got so damn cheap, but you are buying me breakfast and that's

final."

"Yeah, good luck with that, Sweetheart," Eric said, throwing his arm over her shoulders and she couldn't help but let out a little

sigh of relief.

Whatever insanity had taken over last week was clearly over. They didn't talk about it, but then again they really didn't need to.

They'd been friends for over twenty years and at this point some things didn't need to be said. That little incident in her kitchen

had been a mistake, one that made her ache, but a mistake nonetheless and they both rather put it behind them and forget about

it. It was just one of those things that was better left alone.

*******

"You're not welcome," he grumbled, wondering how the hell she got him to pay for breakfast, lunch, an ice cream, and dinner.

Oh, that's right, he thought dryly, she stole his wallet and refused to give it back. Since he caught the little gold digger eying the

Hungry Man's Breakfast menu at Rick's Dinner earlier when they grabbed lunch and heard her mentioning something about

trying the supreme breakfast tomorrow morning he knew he was going to have to steal his wallet back while she slept.

Normally he wouldn't mind buying her whatever she needed. Of course he busted her chops, but this was his Joe and he made

damn sure that she was taken care of, but today everything she did was pissing him right the hell off.

She'd obviously forgiven him since she was talking to him, smiling and even joking around like nothing happened and that had

him seeing red. A ny other woman would have brought up that disaster in the kitchen at least a hundred times by now. A t the

very least she should have wanted to ask how he felt about it, but had she?

Hell no, not Joe. She acted like it was over and done with. Did she really want to pretend that she hadn't sucked on his tongue

and that he hadn't ground the hardest damn erection he'd ever had against her? Well, he didn't.

He knew he was being an idiot, but he couldn't help it. His pride was taking a beating on this one. Was he really that

forgettable? The thought really pissed him off, well, pissed him off more. It irritated the hell out of him that the woman he'd

been drooling after for years thought he was that forgettable. Every time she came near him he had to curl his hands into fists to

stop from grabbing her and showing her how unforgettable he really was.

"I think we should talk about what happened," he said before he realized what the hell he was doing, but once the words were

out of his mouth he decided that they were damn well going to have this little talk.

She shrugged it off as she finished off her last fry. "The nurse was an idiot," she simply said, referring to an earlier call they

had where a nurse decided to light up a cigarette next to their patient while they were stuck outside of a nursing home waiting

to be buzzed in. They'd both gotten into it with the nurse and were expecting a call from Bill, but he wasn't worried.

"That's not what I was talking about. I think we should talk about what happened last week," he explained and when she

frowned in adorable confusion he added, "in your kitchen."

"Well, I gave that some thought," she said, collecting their trash and opened the ambulance door and walked off, leaving him

frustrated. A ny other woman and he would have thought that she was just trying to create a little drama by waiting to finish that

thought, but Joe liked the ambulance tidied up immediately after a meal so that the empty containers didn't stink up the

ambulance.

"A nd?" he prompted when she climbed back into the ambulance and pulled her hair back into a lazy ponytail.

"A nd I made a few calls and I'm going up to New Hampshire Friday for three days of training through one of the schools to get

a few certifications," she explained.

Since that wasn't what he was talking about and the last goddamn thing on his mind at the moment it took him a few minutes to

figure out what the hell she just said.

"You're going for certification?" She nodded. "For what?"

"Dispatch and teaching First A id and CPR."

He frowned, surprised that she'd listened to him and was actually going with it. Well, that had been easy. Maybe a little too

easy, he realized as he narrowed his eyes on her.

"A re you taking a job in dispatch?" he asked, already deciding that would probably be the perfect job for and most importantly

it would get her the hell out of a truck where she didn't belong.

The stubborn woman shook her head. "No, I want the certification. I talked to Bill and after I go through on the job training

they're going to hire me for dispatch as per diem to cover shifts and keep my skills up."

"Then you plan on teaching First A id and CPR fulltime?" he asked, wondering how the hell she expected to make enough

money to support herself doing that, but if that's what she wanted he'd make damn sure that it happened.

A gain she shook her head. "No, I talked to Bill and he said after I passed he'd give me the part time job if I wanted it. I think

I'm going to take him up on it."

"Wait," he said, trying to clear his head. "Then what the hell are you planning to do for a living?"

She looked over and frowned. "What I'm doing now."

He stared at her for a moment, wondering if she was kidding. Judging by the way she met his glare head on he figured that she

was dead serious. That was a problem for him, because he needed her the hell off the truck as soon as possible.

"Why the hell would you keep working on the truck when dispatchers get paid more?" he demanded, trying to keep his tone

even.

"Because I love what I do," she said with a shrug. "But you had a good point the other day so I decided to look into a few things and this way I'll have something to fall back on."

She was kidding. She had to be.

"You don't need something to fall back on, Joe, because I would always take care of you!" he snapped, feeling his patience

fray. "What you need to do is find a safer job so that I don't have to worry about you every fucking minute of the day!"

"We've been over this, Eric. That's not your job," she said tightly as she buckled her seatbelt with clipped motions.

"The hell it isn't," he said, snatching the microphone, realizing they needed to put a little distance between them or they were

likely going to kill each other, or at the very least he was going to spank some sense into her ass.

"Dispatch, this is Echo seventeen, are we clear to return to base?" he asked, ignoring the glare Joe was sending his way.

"Echo seventeen, you're clear," dispatch answered.