Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

" E ric, why don't you sit over here?" Alice suggested, gesturing towards the empty chair next to Camie.

"I'm fine where I am, Mom," Eric said, ignoring the glare that his mother was sending him. He didn't care. He came here to spend time with his family and meet his brother's new girlfriend, not be set up with an ice bitch, who was now glaring at Joe every time she thought no one was looking.

Seriously, where the hell did his mother find these women? The last one she brought home had just separated from her husband and cried hysterically throughout the entire meal. Did she really think he was desperate?

"But-" his mother started to argue.

"I'm already settled, Mom. Let's just eat before it gets cold," Eric said, gesturing to the platter of pot roast and large serving bowls of side dishes on the table.

Camie smiled coyly as she stood up. "I can just move over there if you want. I'm sure your mother just wants to have a chance to sit next to Joe," she said as she started making her way around the table to join him.

His smile became tight as he reached over and grabbed Joe's arm as she set down the large pitchers of water and iced tea on the table. Eric ignored her muttered protest and yanked her ass down in the chair next to him. Camie paused mid-step, throwing Joe a glare that, by all rights, should have killed her on the spot.

Joe took one look at his expression and smiled sweetly, too damn sweetly. "You know what? You can have this seat. I'd love to catch up with Nathan and Caitlyn," she said, starting to get up.

Eric put his arm around her and hauled her back down, keeping her firmly in place. Keeping his tone light, Eric said, "But you and I really need to talk."

"We really don't, though," Joe said, trying to get up again. She really was enjoying screwing with him too much, but after what he'd tried pulling with Greg last night, she really didn't feel bad about it.

"Sure, we do," Eric said, holding her firmly in place with one arm while he started spooning food onto their plates. "We really should discuss our trip tomorrow."

Caitlyn smiled. "You're going on a trip?"

Eric said, "Yes," the same time that Joe said, "No."

" I'm going on a trip. Eric's inviting himself along," Joe clarified.

Nathan snorted. "Since when does he need an invitation? You guys do everything together. I think it's pretty much assumed at this point that where one of you goes, the other will follow," Nathan said, shrugging it off as Camie's expression turned furious, making Joe seriously wonder where Alice found these women.

"That's not even close to being true," Joe said, shaking her head in disgust as Eric ladled gravy onto her potatoes the way she liked it, perfectly in the middle with none of it spilling over.

Nathan scooped mashed potatoes onto his plate as he said, "Name one major thing that either one of you did without the other one."

Eric chuckled. "I've done plenty of things without Joe there and I haven't been with her for everything she did, either."

"Name one big thing that you've done without each other there and I will give you each a hundred dollars," Nathan said smugly.

Joe and Eric shared a look as they both thought it over. Joe started with the big life events. There was the time she'd lost her virginity, but Eric had been in the car next to her doing the same thing, so that didn't technically count. Her first kiss was out too since Eric was the one to give it to her on a dare. Driver's license? Graduation? EMT training? First job?

Shit!

"Oh, I've got one!" Eric announced. "The night I got engaged," he said, looking at Nathan as he held his hand out.

Joe winced.

Nathan laughed.

Alice sighed.

Camie looked pissed at the mention of Eric being engaged to another woman, which was seriously starting to creep her out.

"Pay up, sucker," Eric said with a smug smile.

"Ah, Eric?" Joe said.

"What? We won," he said, once again gesturing for Nathan to hand over the money.

"No, you didn't," Nathan pointed out with a satisfied sigh.

"What the hell are you talking about? Of course I did," Eric said, looking confused.

"Ah, Eric, he's right. I was there. Remember?" Joe said, only to sigh when he shook his head. "Remember the three of us were at the club over on Wilmington? You and I were dancing and Beth kind of had a meltdown about that so you jokingly offered to marry her to shut her up?"

Alice gasped. "You proposed as a joke? I thought you loved her?"

He winced.

"Eric Parish, do not tell me that you were going to marry some poor girl just to shut her up," Alice demanded, shaking her head in wonder.

"Why else?" Eric said with a cocky grin, making Joe roll her eyes. The man really enjoyed driving his mother crazy. Not that it wasn't the truth. Eric didn't believe in romantic love. Lust? Yes, but not the kind of love that lasted forever.

"Wait," Joe said as something occurred to her. "I wasn't there when their engagement ended, so we won."

Eric winced as he said, "Ah, Joe? You kind of were," making her frown.

"No, I wasn't. You were fighting while we were up at the ski resort, but you didn't break up until after you dropped me off at my house. So there, that's one major event that I wasn't there for," Joe said, only to narrow her eyes on Nathan when he started laughing his ass off.

Bastard.

"What am I missing?" Joe demanded as she watched Eric duck his head and began shoveling food into his mouth.

"You were there alright," Nathan said, chuckling.

Okay, now she was seriously confused. She narrowed her eyes on Eric, who was shoveling food in his mouth faster, obviously trying to avoid the question.

" What did you do ?" Joe demanded as she narrowed her eyes on him. She was pretty sure that she wouldn't forget being in the room when her best friend broke off his engagement. Call her crazy, but that was the kind of thing that she would remember.

No answer.

"Maybe we should talk about something else," Alice suggested with a hopeful smile.

Joe turned her glare on Nathan, only to watch the bastard grin hugely. "Well, it seemed good old Beth, whom I like to point out that I never liked, tried to put her foot down where the two of you were concerned. Seems that she didn't like all the touchy-feely crap between the two of you and wanted him to start treating her the way that he treats you."

Joe nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know that she had a problem with that and I understood it and apologized if it made her uncomfortable. Hell, I even spent the second day by myself so that they could be alone."

"Well, you may have spent the entire day apart, however..." Nathan said, letting his words trail off.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Joe demanded as she narrowed her eyes on the little bastard that better start talking.

Alice released a heartfelt sigh as she grabbed another roll while Camie continued glaring, which was seriously starting to freak her out. Caitlyn smiled shyly as she ate, obviously uncomfortable and Joe couldn't blame her since she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable herself.

"What the hell don't I know about?" Joe demanded when no one said anything as her glare shifted between Eric and Nathan with a look that told them that they better start talking.

Eric groaned loudly as he dropped his fork on his plate and sat up straight. "Fine! You want to know what happened? I'll tell you. She wouldn't stop bitching. Everywhere I went, she was there, bitching at me. I had enough and wanted to sleep on the couch. She demanded that I sleep with her and I put my foot down."

Eric hated sharing a bed. The few times he'd tried spending the entire night in bed with a woman, he'd panicked. He was very particular about his sleep. He couldn't handle snoring, bed hogs, or people that moved in their sleep. For some reason, he didn't have a problem hogging her bed and doing all of those things to her .

"You had a problem sharing a bed with your fiancée?" Camie asked, looking unsure whether that news should please her or not.

"I'm a light sleeper, damn it!" Eric said defensively. "Everyone knows that."

"Uh-huh," Nathan said absently, still smiling. Bastard. "Tell her the rest."

"If you don't tell me what you did to cost me a hundred dollars, I swear to God that I am going to strap your ass to a backboard on Monday and let the guys shave your ass from head to toe," she threatened, knowing the guys would happily do it.

"Fine, my little drama queen, if you must know. The couch was too goddamn lumpy, so I went to your room to get some sleep," Eric said, shrugging it off.

"Wait. If you wouldn't sleep in the same bed with your fiancée, then why would you sleep with her?" Camie asked, narrowing her eyes on the both of them.

Nathan sighed dramatically. "Because she's his bitch. You really need to pay attention."

"Nathan!" Alice gasped, even as she couldn't help but smile and Caitlyn chuckled softly. Joe could tell that she was really going to like Caitlyn.

"Anyway," Eric said, stretching out the word. "I fell asleep and sometime after two in the morning, Beth woke up and decided to come looking for me. When she didn't find me on the couch, she went straight to Joe's room and that's where she found me."

Joe held up her hand. "Wait a minute. I don't remember any of this and I'm pretty sure since Beth was incapable of talking without screeching that she would have woken me up."

Eric cringed as he looked away.

Nathan laughed his ass off.

Alice sighed, taking a sip of the wine she'd somehow managed to get without Joe noticing during this deeply disturbing conversation.

Camie put her fork down and crossed her arms defiantly over her chest while glaring at her and Eric. Seriously, was anyone else freaked out by this?

"Well?" Joe demanded.

Eric cleared his throat uncomfortably. "It's really no big deal."

That left Nathan struggling to breathe as he laughed his ass off.

Oh, she had a feeling that she wasn't going to like this.

Not one bit.

"Care to explain how I was in the room with the two of you while you broke off your engagement without getting woken up by a woman who never said anything below a shriek?"

Nathan grabbed his chest as tears rolled down his cheeks, only to follow that up by falling out of his chair and hit the floor with a loud thud.

Sighing, Alice took another large sip of wine.

"How?" Joe demanded.

Eric gave her that bad boy smile that was going to get him killed. "I made sure you wouldn't wake up."

" How ?"

Clearing his throat, Eric said, "I may have," he cleared his throat again, "had to, um, place a pillow over your head just for a little bit there."

She gasped. "You smothered me?"

"Yes!" Nathan somehow managed to get out as he continued laughing his ass off.

"You bastard ," Joe breathed.

"Oh, come on! I made sure you were still breathing! You only turned blue once and that was because I was too busy defending you to notice!"