Page 15 of A Sudden Response

Eric forced himself to remain calm as he asked, “Why does she think I’m gay?”

“You mean you’re not?” Nathan asked, blinking innocently.

Their mother sighed heavily as she reached up and slapped her oldest son upside the head.

“Ow! What the hell, woman?”

“Would you people focus? Why does that lunatic think I’m gay?”

“Joe may have led her to believe that,” Caitlyn said quietly, drawing everyone’s attention.

Eric thought over that little revelation and, after a few minutes, shrugged it off. As long as the psycho was gone, he really didn’t care how it happened, Eric decided as he sat back down and dug into his cake. Granted, he may decide to make Joe’s life a living hell on the boat for a couple days after this. It really depended on if he was bored or not. For Joe’s sake, she better hope the fish were biting this weekend.

CHAPTER 7

“That’s my Coke, woman!”

“Not anymore,” Joe said, finishing off the last few ounces of the cold beverage that he desperately needed.

“You owe me a Coke,” Eric bit out.

“Not gonna happen,” Joe said with a satisfied sigh.

“You just finished my soda and I’m thirsty, woman,” Eric said with a glare that told her just how close he was to spanking her beautiful ass.

“You should have thought about that before you pulled your shit this weekend,” Joe said as she leaned back against the passenger seat.

He felt his lips twitch. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Eric said, trying to sound innocent and probably failing since he couldn’t seem to wipe the shit-eating grin off his face.

She turned her head and glared at him, just fucking glared.

He cleared his throat as he struggled not to laugh.

“You pushed me over the side of the boat a grand total of fifteen times!” Joe snapped, throwing the empty soda bottle at his head.

He easily ducked out of the way. “They were all accidents,” Eric managed with a straight face. “I swear.”

Of course, they hadn’t been. Well, maybe that first time had been an accident. He couldn’t recall if he’d meant to knock her over the side of the boat or not. At the time, he’d only been trying to get that prick from Vermont away from her. If he had to watch that asshole “show” Joe how to hold her pole one more time, he would have killed the bastard.

Eric had maneuvered between the two of them when the bastard went to put his arms around Joe again. Somehow during his rescue attempt, he’d accidentally knocked Joe into the ocean. At least, he was pretty sure that time had been an accident. The fourteen times that followed were definitely intentional, mostly because they’d brought a smile to his face. Her wet clothes clinging to every curve of her body had just been an added bonus. A very nice bonus that currently had him shifting in his seat.

Slowly nodding, Joe reached down to unbuckle her seatbelt, most likely to kick his ass, when the radio went off.

“Echo seventeen,”came the interruption that had Joe swearing softly under her breath as Eric grabbed the mic.

“Echo seventeen,” Eric said in that deep voice that had Joe mentally kicking herself for noticing. These little moments were really starting to creep her out.

“What’s your location?”

“West side.”

“Echo seventeen, I need you to respond to an unknown emergency at 278 Slade Street.”

“Received.”

“What do you think? Prank call?” Joe asked, all business now as she pulled out an emergency run sheet and attached it to the clipboard as Eric put on his sunglasses, giving him the ultimate bad boy look that made her mouth go dry in seconds.

“Probably,” he said as he flicked on the emergency lights.

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