Page 32 of A Sudden Response

Knowing that there was no point arguing, Joe sighed heavily and headed for the bathroom, grabbing Eric’s favorite tee-shirt, an old faded...well, she really wasn’t sure what it was anymore, but she knew that it was Eric’s favorite. Ten minutes later, she was curled up in bed and drifting off, wishing that it was Eric’s arms wrapped around her instead of his old tee-shirt.

“Shhhh, go back to sleep,”Eric said softly sometime later as he curled his large, warm body around hers.

“Get out,” Joe mumbled even as she snuggled back against him.

When he chuckled, Joe buried her face against her pillow and decided to ignore him.

“How are you feeling?” Eric asked quietly as he gently ran his fingers through her hair.

“Like kicking your ass,” she muttered into the pillow. “I can’t believe you called Mom on me.”

“You didn’t leave me with much of a choice, now did you?”

“Bastard.”

“Get some sleep,” Eric said, pressing a kiss against the top of her head.

“I’m going to work tomorrow,” she informed him, inwardly daring him to argue because if he did, she was going to kick his-

“I know,” Eric said, surprising her.

“You know?” she repeated back slowly, not sure if this was some kind of trick.

“Mmmhmm, I know you’re too stubborn to listen to the doctor. I already talked to Bill and he figured as much, which will actually work out because we have Greg again.”

Thatgot her attention.

She rolled over, shoving Eric away so that she could face him. “Why the hell is he still third-riding?” The man should already be assigned to a more senior partner to finish his probation period, especially since they were only required to do five ride-alongs and he must have done at least a dozen by now.

“He’s still nervous as hell. Every time he comes close to a patient, he loses his lunch and if it’s an emergency, he loses it as soon as the ambulance comes to a stop. No one’s even let him get behind the wheel, afraid that he’ll black out and crash the truck,” Eric said, lazily scratching his bare chest as he rolled over onto his back.

“If it’s that bad, then maybe he should really consider doing something else,” Joe suggested, feeling bad for Greg but not bad enough to risk him endangering a patient because he couldn’t do his job.

“Bill wants you to take another crack at him and see if you can help. If he doesn’t improve within a week, he’s going to have to let him go,” Eric said, fighting back a yawn.

She sighed heavily as she laid her head on Eric’s shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist. While she tried to figure out a way to help Greg deal with his nerves, she snuggled closerto Eric. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

“I’m not sure if a week’s enough time to help him,” Joe said as she absently traced circles on Eric’s chest and stomach, loving the way the light dusting of hair felt against her fingertips.

“No, it’s not. Normally, I’d offer to grab a few extra shifts to train him, but with you injured,” she rolled her eyes at that, “and the Fireman Muster games this weekend, we won’t have a chance. I’m hoping Bill will give us until next Friday before he makes his decision.”

As bad as she felt for Greg, her mind had already moved on to another pressing matter. She couldn’t believe she almost forgot about the games especially since she was competing this year. “We’re going to kick ass this year,” Joe said with a firm nod.

For years, they’d competed together in the ambulance portion of the muster, a competition between neighboring fire departments to put their skills to the test, and they always won. For the last four years, she got stuck behind the scenes helping out, but this year, she told Bill that he was going to have to find someone else to deal with the vendors because she was going to kick some ass instead.

Eric gently ran his fingers through her hair, careful of her stitches. “Are you sure you’re up to it?” he asked softly.

“Of course, I’m up to it. We are so going to kick some Blackford ass this year!”

“They kicked our asses last year and the year before,” Eric pointed out.

“That’s because I wasn’t competing,” she reminded him.

“There is that,” Eric admitted, pressing another kiss against the top of her head. “Get some sleep, Joe. Tomorrow’s our twenty-four-hour shift and I have a feeling we’re going to need every minute of rest that we can get.”

Frowning, she tilted her head back to look at him. “Why do you say that?

He sighed heavily as he pressed a kiss against her forehead. “Because we have Greg for the entire shift,” Eric said, making her groan.

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