Page 66 of A Sudden Response

“And why’s that?” Joe absently asked as she kept watch through the side window. She swore if she saw anything yellow or white moving towards the ambulance that she was driving off and never looking back.

“Cause I don’t think he can fit you and Toby in his tummy,” Caleb explained, probably thinking that he was helping.

He wasn’t.

Eric was sleeping with her for the next week and that’s all there was to it. They’d be using the same drill they used when she found that large, black spider crawling across her kitchen floor at two in the morning last year. She wouldn’t be leaving the safety of her bed until he double-checked everything and even then, she probably wouldn’t leave the safety of her bed unless she had no other choice.

CHAPTER 28

Three Months Later…

“I’m impressed.”

Eric glanced up to find the small group of men who’d gathered in front of him. “Impressed with what?” he asked, knowing that they’d keep bugging the shit out of him until he played along.

“Three months and she hasn’t killed you yet,” Jeff said, shaking his head in wonder. “I’m shocked.”

He was, too.

He loved her more than anything. She was everything to him, his partner, his best friend, his lover, and his soul, and somehow, he’d managed to fuck this up. He knew this day would come. She was pissed at him and he had no fucking idea why. She hadn’t said more than a few words to him since their overtime shift ended last night.

When he showed up at her house last night to take her out to dinner, she’d mumbled an excuse, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and sent him on his way. For the past three months, he fell asleep with her in his arms every night except for last night andhe’d fucking hated it. She was pulling away from him and he had no idea what he was supposed to do to stop it.

She made him unbelievably happy and he couldn’t lose her. So, last night while his brother was bitching about their mother’s latest setup, he’d paced the living room, trying to figure out how he’d fucked this up.

So, this morning he came up with a plan. Since he didn’t know what he did to piss her off, he was just going to focus on making her unbelievably fucking happy and hope that it was enough. He was going to do all the things that he knew she liked and some of the things that he saw his brother do for women over the years. If she didn’t forgive him by the end of their shift, then he was going to apologize and promise that he would never do it again and pray that she dropped him a fucking hint so that he never did it again.

“Looks like someone’s in the doghouse.”

Frowning, Eric looked up in time to watch Joe climb into the back of the ambulance without a word. Thankfully, the guys lost interest and walked off, giving him a chance to set his plan into motion. He finished rinsing off the ambulance while Joe finished checking the back. When he was done, Eric grabbed the large pastry box that he’d managed to hide from the guys.

“I got you breakfast,” Eric said, holding the box out to her only to end up feeling like an idiot when she stared at it.

“Oh,” Joe mumbled absently as she accepted the box. “Thanks. Do you mind getting on the road a little early? I want to pick something up for breakfast.”

Feeling his lips twitch, Eric gestured to the box. “I already grabbed breakfast.”

“Oh,” Joe said, frowning down at the box. “Then, I need to grab a coffee.”

“Got one in the truck for you,” Eric said, feeling quite proud of himself for meeting all of her needs this morning.

“Thanks,” Joe mumbled, looking absolutely-fucking lost and-

It was over.

He had no fucking idea what he was supposed to do now, but he knew that he didn’t want this to go down in front of the guys. If she was going to break his heart, then he wanted to do this in private.

“Let’s go for a ride,” Eric said, gesturing to the ambulance.

With a nod, Joe made her way around the ambulance and climbed into the passenger seat. After a slight pause, Eric joined her. He called them on the air, praying that dispatch had a call for them so that they could put this off for a little longer only to get posted to the south side.

For ten minutes, they rode in silence while Joe absently toyed with a corner of the cardboard box. His hands tightened around the steering wheel while he found himself wondering how something that hadn’t even happened yet could hurt so damn much. Any other woman and he would have beat her to the punch line and ended this, but this was Joe.

HisJoe.

He needed to hear it from her lips. He needed to know that this was what she wanted. He’d give her a chance to explain all the ways he’d fucked up and then he’d use that newfound knowledge to beg her to give him another chance. She had to know that he couldn’t live without her.

That had to mean something.

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