Page 68 of Black Heart

“I’m not hungry,” Tristan said, gesturing for his brother to leave.

“And if I cared, that might mean something to me, but sadly, it doesn’t,” Denny said with a shrug as he gestured for Tristan to move his ass. When Tristan opened his mouth to politely tell his brother to fuck off, he was cut off.

“You haven’t come to dinner in more than a month and a half, which means that I’ve been left to deal with Mom,” he explained before stressing, “alone.”

Tristan couldn’t help but inwardly cringe on his brother’s behalf. Their mother could try the patience of a saint with the way that she babied them, but at least when they were both there, it divided her attention and made it somewhat tolerable. He’d have to make it up to his brother, but not tonight.

“Tonight’s not good, Denny. I’m working on a case,” Tristan said, once again gesturing for his brother to leave when the bastard had to go and say the one thing that would get him to move his ass.

“Mom started interrogating Marty as soon as I left.”

* * *

“Your children are gonna be adorable,”Beth announced with a heartfelt sigh that almost made Marty choke on the sip of water she’d mistakenly taken to buy herself some time during Beth’s rapid-fire interrogation that started the second she’d walked into the kitchen.

“Don’t you think their babies are gonna be cute, sweetheart?” Beth asked Tom, smiling dreamily as she kept her eyes on Marty. The pleased expression on Beth’s face actually terrified her.

She shot a hopeful look at her father only to find the man ignoring her silent cry for help as he took a sip of beer. It didn’t exactly surprise her that her father wasn’t coming to her defense since he knew better. Marty could only imagine what Beth would do if he made the mistake of setting her straight. She’d spend the rest of the night focused on him. Still, it would have been a sweet gesture if he’d sacrificed himself for her. Not that she’d actually expected him to, but it would have been nice all the same.

“Adorable,” Tom said, earning a glare from Marty.

He mouthed, “Sorry,” gave her a shrug, and took a sip of his beer as his attention went right back to the Yankees game playing on the small television sitting on the long counter and easily ignored the inquisition that refused to end.

“Tristan’s house is perfect for a large family,” Beth pointed out as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth, no doubt trying to decide which room would be perfect for a nursery.

“We’re just dating,” Marty felt obligated to point out even though she wasn’t really sure that was true any longer.

She wasn’t a hundred percent positive, but she was pretty sure that she’d been given the kiss-off earlier. It was actually a really depressing thought and if her father hadn’t wrestled that pint of ice cream away from her and practically dragged her over here, Marty would still be in her room preparing for the heartache that she knew was coming. The only reason that she hadn’t made her escape yet was because she knew that Tristan wouldn’t be here.

When Denny announced that he was going to get Tristan, she felt a surge of panic that quickly disappeared when she reminded herself that Tristan was stubborn and would probably find a way to get out of this. From what she’d been told, he hadn’t come over for dinner for close to two months, but that was understandable since he was recovering from a gunshot wound and had been in too much pain to indulge his mother.

Lucky bastard.

As much as she loved Beth, and she did, she really did, she just knew that she wouldn’t be able to deal with Beth like this for the rest of the night. When Beth did this to Denny, it amused her, but the way the woman was sizing her up, almost as if she were trying to figure out how many grandbabies Marty would be able to give her, it terrified her.

It also made everything worse.

The only man she’d ever loved was pushing her away and she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do. It never bothered her before when a relationship ended, mostly because she never really cared. None of the men she’d dated before ever made her feel the way that Tristan did, but more importantly, she never loved them.

Tristan didn’t let anyone get close to him, not even his own family and why she ever thought that she was special was beyond her. She’d learned over the last couple of months that she was anything but special to Tristan. For all she knew, he’d slept with her just to scratch an itch and now history was repeating itself. All those years ago, he’d hurt her when he suddenly dropped out of her life and now, he was doing it again.

“Marty?” Beth said, drawing her attention. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

“I’m fine,” Marty lied, forcing a smile that she didn’t feel at the moment and prayed that Beth took pity on her and let the subject of her and Tristan drop.

“You don’t look okay,” her father said, frowning as he looked at her.

Marty started to tell him that she was fine again, but she just couldn’t do it. She wasn’t fine. Nothing about this was fine. Her stomach was twisted up in knots as she waited for Tristan to break her heart and she couldn’t help but wonder why.

Why was she waiting for him to drop the bomb? If he wanted to end things, then he was damn well going to tell her to her face this time, Marty decided as she moved to hunt the bastard down. She’d rather have her heart shattered quickly than to deal with this gut-wrenching uncertainty for a minute longer.

“Marty?” her father called after her.

“There’s something that I need to do,” Marty said, not bothering to look back as she stormed out of the kitchen and headed for the living room, more than ready to kick Tristan’s ass if that’s what it took. If it turned out that he was done, she’d accept it, but this time, she would be the one walking away.

Only she wouldn’t be coming back.

CHAPTER25

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