Page 58 of A Sudden Response

“I can’t take your friend out because Joe and I are seeing each other. So, it would be a little awkward ditching my girlfriend so that I could take another woman out,” Eric pointed out with a helpless shrug.

Amber’s glare on her intensified as Alice narrowed her eyes on them.

“Joe?” was all Alice had to say.

She could confirm Eric’s story and get the woman who looked close to clawing her eyes out a reason to leave or she could have a little more fun. In the end, Joe knew what she had to do.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Joe said, shaking her head with a pitying sigh as she stepped away from him.

Nathan grinned hugely as he reached out and took her hand. Eric’s shocked gasp, of course, pleased her.

“You betraying bitch!” Eric hissed, making a mad grab for her hand.

“Honestly, Eric. You’ll say anything to get out of trying something new. It won’t kill you to give tofu another try. I’m sure the rash you developed the last time was just a coincidence,” Alice said as they headed for the door.

“This isn’t over!”

“What are you doing here?”Nathan asked as he loaded his plate with chicken fingers.

“Contemplating manslaughter,” Eric said, snatching the plate away from his brother and moving down the line to add beef teriyaki and pork fried rice. With a resigned sigh, Nathan grabbed another plate.

“Where’s your date?” Nathan asked, chuckling.

“You mean your date? She’s sitting at the table waiting for you,” Eric said, nodding towards the woman who looked seconds away from throwing a tantrum.

Nathan frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Eric shrugged even as he watched the little traitor loading her plate up three tables down. “After I explained that I was unavailable but that you were looking for someone like her, she decided to give you a chance,” Eric said, slapping his brother on the back before moving on to his next prey.

“You better be kidding,” Nathan bit out. “You’re kidding, right? Eric?” he said, sounding nervous. Good. The bastard should be nervous. That woman was a nightmare.

The second his brother pulled out of the driveway with their mother and Joe, she’d started in on him, telling him that she didn’t appreciate his attitude. He’d just barely stopped himself from sending her packing when he decided to unload her on Nathan and let the bastard see how it felt to be set up with a psycho.

When she started in about Joe, he’d set her straight on that subject. He told her that he was in love with her and she was just nervous about letting his mother know since she didn’t want to get Alice’s hopes up. Not that she really could since she was his and that’s all there was to it.

“He said what?” he heard his mother suddenly demand.

His eyes shot over to the table where he’d left Amber pouting and tried not to wince when his mother turned a glare on him. It was just so wrong that one look from his mother could still scare the shit out of him.

“Uh-oh, looks like someone’s in trouble,” Joe said in a mock whisper as she walked past him.

With a glare that admittedly dropped to her ass, Eric followed her, snatching the soda out of Nathan’s hand along theway. He waited for Joe to sit down before sitting down right next to her and well away from the two women glaring in his direction.

He pointedly ignored them as he put his arm along the back of Joe’s chair and ate. Occasionally, he looked up to send a smug smile in his brother’s direction as the harpy his mother tried setting him up with chatted his ear off about fashion and diets. Every time the poor bastard went to eat something, Amber went into a lecture about animal cruelty that Eric easily ignored. When Nathan filled his plate up with vegetables, probably to get her to shut the hell up, she lectured him about oils and organic foods.

Joe happily ignored the woman’s pointed comments in her direction and enjoyed her meal. When she finally shoved her plate away, a clear sign from Joe that she was done, he took her hand in his and was surprised when she didn’t pull away. Then again, they’d always been close so this wouldn’t be a big deal to his mother.

“Aren’t you getting dessert?” Eric asked, reaching over to push a loose strand of her honey-blonde hair behind her ear.

“Now, why would I do that when you’re going to buy me something at the movies?” Joe asked, making him chuckle.

Nathan snorted at that and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “gold digger,” but he ignored it, mostly because he agreed with his brother. What was it with women these days? Any other woman and he would have laughed and wished her luck with that, but this was his Joe. So, he’d treat her to a soda, small, of course.

But he wanted a kiss first and he wanted it now. He stood up, giving her hand a small tug that had her joining him. “We’ll meet you outside,” he told his family as he dropped enough money on the table to cover everything and headed for the door before his mother could stop him.

“Why exactly are you in a rush to leave the restaurant?” Joe asked once they reached his car.

“For this,” Eric said, pulling her into his arms so that he could kiss her.

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