100% agree. Unfortunately his sentiment shows only that Eric is an upstanding gentleman and human being. Eric, this man, seems to be the ONLY one who can see the big picture and notices how an older male entering the sphere of a bunch of young fit males in bathing suits could be perceived poorly.
Eric's the only one wise enough to see the percieved intention here. It's not that Eric suspects NM, but knows that, as a male, his actions could be seen this way. Too bad no one paid Eric any attention on this. To me it seems the need to be a bit macho (or "hero", to be the guy who saved the day by finding the lost cell phone) among the group of older couples was more important to NM.