Page 11 of A Sudden Response

His smile became tight as he reached over and grabbed Joe’s arm as she set down the large pitchers of water and iced tea onthe table. Eric ignored her muttered protest and yanked her ass down in the chair next to him. Camie paused mid-step, throwing Joe a glare that, by all rights, should have killed her on the spot.

Joe took one look at his expression and smiled sweetly, too damn sweetly. “You know what? You can have this seat. I’d love to catch up with Nathan and Caitlyn,” she said, starting to get up.

Eric put his arm around her and hauled her back down, keeping her firmly in place. Keeping his tone light, Eric said, “But you and I really need to talk.”

“We really don’t, though,” Joe said, trying to get up again. She really was enjoying screwing with him too much, but after what he’d tried pulling with Greg last night, she really didn’t feel bad about it.

“Sure, we do,” Eric said, holding her firmly in place with one arm while he started spooning food onto their plates. “We really should discuss our trip tomorrow.”

Caitlyn smiled. “You’re going on a trip?”

Eric said, “Yes,” the same time that Joe said, “No.”

“I’mgoing on a trip. Eric’s inviting himself along,” Joe clarified.

Nathan snorted. “Since when does he need an invitation? You guys do everything together. I think it’s pretty much assumed at this point that where one of you goes, the other will follow,” Nathan said, shrugging it off as Camie’s expression turned furious, making Joe seriously wonder where Alice found these women.

“That’s not even close to being true,” Joe said, shaking her head in disgust as Eric ladled gravy onto her potatoes the way she liked it, perfectly in the middle with none of it spilling over.

Nathan scooped mashed potatoes onto his plate as he said, “Name one major thing that either one of you did without the other one.”

Eric chuckled. “I’ve done plenty of things without Joe there and I haven’t been with her for everything she did, either.”

“Name one big thing that you’ve done without each other there and I will give you each a hundred dollars,” Nathan said smugly.

Joe and Eric shared a look as they both thought it over. Joe started with the big life events. There was the time she’d lost her virginity, but Eric had been in the car next to her doing the same thing, so that didn’t technically count. Her first kiss was out too since Eric was the one to give it to her on a dare. Driver’s license? Graduation? EMT training? First job?

Shit!

“Oh, I’ve got one!” Eric announced. “The night I got engaged,” he said, looking at Nathan as he held his hand out.

Joe winced.

Nathan laughed.

Alice sighed.

Camie looked pissed at the mention of Eric being engaged to another woman, which was seriously starting to creep her out.

“Pay up, sucker,” Eric said with a smug smile.

“Ah, Eric?” Joe said.

“What? We won,” he said, once again gesturing for Nathan to hand over the money.

“No, you didn’t,” Nathan pointed out with a satisfied sigh.

“What the hell are you talking about? Of course I did,” Eric said, looking confused.

“Ah, Eric, he’s right. I was there. Remember?” Joe said, only to sigh when he shook his head. “Remember the three of us were at the club over on Wilmington? You and I were dancing and Beth kind of had a meltdown about that so you jokingly offered to marry her to shut her up?”

Alice gasped. “You proposed as a joke? I thought you loved her?”

He winced.

“Eric Parish, do not tell me that you were going to marry some poor girl just to shut her up,” Alice demanded, shaking her head in wonder.

“Why else?” Eric said with a cocky grin, making Joe roll her eyes. The man really enjoyed driving his mother crazy. Not that it wasn’t the truth. Eric didn’t believe in romantic love. Lust? Yes, but not the kind of love that lasted forever.

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