Sudden Response (EMS #1)(41)

"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. Any 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.

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

"And 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 Aid 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.

"Are 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 Aid 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.

Again 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 f**king 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.

He threw the ambulance into drive and headed back to base. The entire time neither spoke or so much as looked at the other. By the time they reached the fire house his chest was tight and he felt sick.

How the hell did they get back to this point? He didn't want her mad at him. He wanted her safe and happy and he kept pissing her off, but then again she was pissing him right the hell off so it was okay.

"Asshole," she muttered as she climbed out of the ambulance and slammed the door shut before she stormed inside, leaving him sitting there feeling like the biggest ass**le on earth and wonder why the hell it hurt so damn much when she was unhappy?

Chapter 19

"Jerk," she muttered as she pulled her boots off and threw them at the cement wall. It made her feel marginally better, but not by much. Hunting down Eric so that she could put him in a headlock would make her feel a hell of a lot better, she decided even as she pulled off her uniform shirt, leaving her in a tight baby blue tank top.

She climbed into bed only to climb back out seconds later when she decided it was too damn hot and she was too damn aggravated to try and sleep in her pants. Tonight she just wanted to sleep through the rest of her shift, go home and take her anger out on cleaning her attic.