Page 61 of A Sudden Response

With a glare, Greg moved his ass and Eric knew that he was going to have to double-check everything afterward. He hadn’t been here a month and he was already proving to be the laziest prick here. As Joe walked past him, she muttered several violent threats about men in general and since he liked his balls right where they were, he let it go. By the time he bought her breakfast, she’d be over it.

“Is it true what I heard about you and Joe?” Teddy asked.

“Depends on what you heard,” Eric said, climbing into the back of the ambulance and double-checked the oxygen tanks.

“I heard lots of things, but I was referring to you finally manning up and going for it.”

“We’re together. You have a problem with that?” Eric asked, double-checking the gauge.

“Nah, I’m just shocked that Joe was that desperate, that’s all,” Teddy said, sounding amused and Eric had to wonder how many times he was going to hear that today.

“I’m not desperate!” Joe yelled from the front of the truck, which, of course, pleased him until she added, “I was drunk!”

“I’m not buying you breakfast for that, smart-ass!”

“You really are a cheap bastard,” Eric thought he heard her mutter, but decided to ignore it and the bastard laughing at him.

CHAPTER 26

“Let me get that for you, Joe,” Greg said, reaching past her to pay the cashier when Eric stepped in front of him, forcing him back and making Joe wish that she’d banged out today.

Their shift only started two hours ago, but she already wanted to bitch-slap them both. Not a good sign when she still had fourteen hours to go before her shift ended. She really wasn’t sure that she’d be able to handle this pissing contest for that long.

In Eric’s defense, Greg really did seem to be going out of his way to piss him off. It was pretty obvious that Greg hadn’t appreciated being put in his place this morning and was trying to use her to piss Eric off. Every five minutes, he seemed to be hitting on her, but only when Eric was around. The only thing it was doing was giving her a headache.

She really didn’t need this. All she wanted to do was work. If he wanted to be trained, then she would be more than willing to help him. He was too damn cocky to realize that he didn’t have what it took to do this job, but instead of just admitting that and cutting his losses, he was being an asshole.

Eric handed over the money for their order and grabbed the bakery bag and cardboard tray with their drinks. “Get your food and meet us at the truck,” Eric said as he headed outside, completely oblivious to the glare that Greg was sending him.

After twelve years, she really should be used to working with guys hellbent on pissing each other off. She just wasn’t in the mood for it today.

“Are you okay?” Eric asked as they climbed into the ambulance.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Joe said, forcing a smile as she accepted the hot chocolate and chocolate-frosted coffee roll from him. She took a sip before placing it in the cup holder and shifted until her back was against the door and used the steering wheel to rest her elbow as she nibbled on her coffee roll.

“I think Nathan’s still pissed at me,” Eric said, sounding pleased.

“Can you blame him?” Joe asked, inwardly wincing on Nathan’s behalf.

After Amber stormed off, Eric decided to make his brother’s life a living hell by taking Alice aside and explaining that Nathan felt left out and would really like her help finding someone special, but he was too embarrassed to ask. Unfortunately for Nathan, Alice was eager to get started and if she wasn’t afraid of drawing Alice’s attention, she would have said something.

Maybe...

The whole thing did promise to be rather entertaining so maybe she’d just sit back and see where this went. She had a feeling that Nathan wouldn’t be able to sidestep his mother’s efforts as easily as Eric had. He was a pushover, so he’d probably end up taking at least a few of them out to please his mother. Of course, she’d have to tag along, and she’d bet every last cent that she had that Eric would be more than happy to join them.

“Did you know that Teddy tried signing Greg out of third riding this weekend?” Eric asked, drawing her attention.

“He can’t sign him out,” Joe said, wondering what the hell was wrong with Teddy.

“Bill already ripped him a new one,” Eric said, taking a bite out of his coffee roll.

“Why would Teddy do something so stupid? With his luck, he’d end up with Greg as a partner and he’d be forced to do all the work. There’s no way in hell that Teddy would willingly screw himself over like that.”

“I think he was hoping that Greg’s uncle would put a good word in for him for the supervisor job over at the 603,” Eric said with a shrug as though he hadn’t just said something truly frightening.

Teddy as a supervisor? She prayed that never happened. Bill wouldn’t allow that and thankfully, the city council didn’t have a say when it came to promotions. She knew that Teddy wanted a supervisor position to get off the truck and sooner or later, he’d realize that would never happen as long as he worked for the city. A private ambulance company was a different story.

As much as she loved her job, she wasn’t sure that she could ever go the private route. From what she’d seen, there was too much drama and backstabbing. A few years ago, when overtime became tight, Eric looked into working part-time for a mom-and-pop ambulance company. The guy had been an asshole with a chip on his shoulder against Bill and had spent the entire interview trying to convince Eric that Bill was an asshole. Halfway through the interview, Eric got up and walked out. They found out later that Bill fired the guy for stealing equipment from the city.

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