Sudden Response (EMS #1)(40)

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 Alice, 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.

"Are 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.

*******

"Thanks for dinner," Joe said, smiling contently as she nibbled on a ketchup drenched fry.

"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. Any other woman would have brought up that disaster in the kitchen at least a hundred times by now. At 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.