Chapter 28

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 and he'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.

His Joe.

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.

"Echo seventeen on the south side," Eric said into the mic as he threw the ambulance in park.

" Echo seventeen, received ."

For a moment, they sat there in silence while Eric did his best to prepare himself for what was about to happen. What he hadn't been prepared for was Joe suddenly unbuckling her seatbelt and scrambling over the middle console so that she could climb onto his lap and wrap her arms around him as she buried her face against his neck.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Eric asked, kissing her forehead as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Nothing," Joe mumbled sadly against his skin.

"Nothing, huh?"

"No."

"And the reason that you're sitting on my lap?" Eric asked as he kissed the top of her head.

"Because you're comfy," she mumbled as she snuggled against him.

"What's wrong?" Eric asked softly.

"Why do you think something's wrong?" Joe mumbled as she shifted until she was sitting across his lap with her back against his door. When she was done, she laid her head against his shoulder and began absently playing with the buttons on his shirt.

"Besides the fact that you canceled our date last night and you're not devouring the pastries I bought for you?" Eric asked dryly.

"I could have had a better offer last night," Joe said, trying to shrug it off.

"And how would that explain you turning down free pastries?" Eric asked as he kissed her forehead.

"Because he fed me breakfast in bed," Joe said as she began tracing shapes on his shirt.

"Was he good?" Eric asked, leaning his head back to look down at her.

She released a long-suffering sigh as she said, "I've had better."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Eric said, smiling as he leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose.

"So was I. I had such high hopes for him, too," Joe muttered, giving up drawing on his shirt to snuggle back in his arms. He looked around the abandoned parking lot, noting a few private ambulances stationed near them as he pressed a kiss to the top of Joe's head before shifting his attention to the convenience store across the street, wondering if he should get her some chocolate since it always seemed to make her feel better.

"Isn't that Greg?" Joe suddenly asked.

Curious, Eric followed her gaze and sure enough, there was Greg. They'd had several third riders before and after him, but none of them managed to piss them off more.

"Oh, my god..." Joe said, shaking her head in wonder.

"They have a third rider training with him?" Eric asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Looks like it," Joe said as they watched a woman climb out of the back of the ambulance and joined Greg and his partner at the front of the ambulance where they stood talking.

He knew that a lot could happen in three months and Greg could have worked his ass off and started taking this job seriously, but he knew that wasn't the case. They'd had several run-ins with the jackass over the past three months. It was more than obvious that he didn't belong on a truck. He was still an arrogant little prick who mouthed off to nurses and didn't know shit when it came to patient care. He-

Had more important things to focus on, Eric reminded himself. Like the woman in his arms, who was obviously upset.

"What's going on, Joe?" he asked softly.

"Promise you won't get mad?" she asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

"I promise," Eric agreed even as he wondered what she could possibly tell him that would upset him when a thought occurred to him, a rather frightening thought.

Could she be pregnant?

They'd been having unprotected sex for three months and even though she was on birth control that was still a risk they should have considered. Birth control wasn't a hundred percent and accidents happened. A baby with Joe? God, yes, but not now.

Not yet.

He wasn't ready to share her yet.

"Bill called me last night," Joe said, shooting him a nervous look as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

"And?" he said when it looked as though she was going to drag this out.

"You remember when we signed up for the city's paramedic waitlist?"

"What about it?" Eric asked, leaning down to kiss her forehead.

They signed up six years ago knowing that they would probably never make it up the list before they decided to go to school on their own. Every two years, the city paid for two EMTs to attend paramedic school. It was a long waitlist, but it would save whoever won the spot twenty grand. It also meant that whoever was selected wouldn't have to worry about losing their jobs while they went to school. As great as it would have been to be selected, they knew the chances of being picked were slim, so they'd started saving so that they could afford to pay for paramedic school and have enough money to cover their bills while they were in school. They had another year before they had enough money to-

"We got it this year."

It took a moment for her words to sink in, and when they did, he couldn't help but smile. "We got it?"

"Bill called last night and asked me to tell you," Joe explained.

"We got it?" he asked, barely able to believe it.

When she nodded, Eric leaned down and-

"You got it," Joe said, confusing the hell out of him before she added, "I turned it down."