Page 47 of Black Heart

She needed to get her act together and get over the jerk. One would think that after all these years that she’d be over him. If anything, she loved the bastard even more now. Love just plain sucked and it wasn’t worth it. She’d just stick with Bob and chocolate from now on.

Ten minutes later, and forty bucks poorer, she walked into Betty Lou’s Coffee and Pastry shop and stepped in line. Her father was already seated at one of the small booths on the other side of the large coffee shop and was talking with the boys. Hopefully, he was still unaware of her weekend activities.

She wasn’t looking forward to the conversation that they would no doubt be having when he found out about her involvement in Tristan’s internet debut. It had been stupid and childish, but something in her had snapped after Tristan toyed with her. After years of being ignored only to be played with when he’d finally acknowledged her existence had set her off. She’d finally had enough and did something she’d regretted almost immediately, but it was either follow through with her rash decision or take a chance on a man that would probably shove her away as soon as he was done with her.

She slowly exhaled and focused on the apple fritter and hot chocolate that would make her morning better. A few minutes later, she was waiting for a rather chatty woman to grab her coffee and get the hell out of her way.

There was only one fritter left and it was hers.

Just as she opened her mouth to ask the woman in front of her to move aside so that she could place her order, a large man in a dark suit stepped in front of her.

What the hell?

“There’s a line,” Marty pointed out, not caring enough to be polite about it. She needed her delicious fritter or she was pretty sure that she was going to kill someone.

“And there still is,” a familiar voice said. It didn’t take long to figure out who the bastard that cut in front of her was.

“Tristan Black,” Marty bit out through clenched teeth, “move your ass!”

He looked over his shoulder and snorted but didn’t say anything else as he returned his attention back to the cashier.

“I’ll take a hot chocolate and a coffee roll-”

“It’s our last one, Detective. I know that you usually get two,” the woman said in a flirty tone that had Marty’s teeth clenching.

“Okay, then, I’ll also take the last apple fritter, Jen,” Tristan said, taking her anger to a whole new level.

“Don’t. You. Dare,” Marty bit out.

Tristan turned around and crossed his arms over his chest while he leaned back against the counter. “I’m sorry, did you want that?” he asked with mock innocence.

She narrowed her eyes on him. The bastard knew that anything with apples was her weakness.

“Yes,” Marty hissed, so close to taking that coffee roll and shoving it down his-

He nodded, looking thoughtful before he leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Too. Bad.” He kissed her cheek before pulling away, leaving her pissed and more than ready to finally kick his ass.

“Thanks, Jen,” Tristan said as he dropped a five-dollar bill on the counter. He grabbed the two small bags and large hot chocolate and headed for the door.

Marty closed her eyes and counted to ten. She would not go after him and kick his ass. She would not go out there and jump on his back and take him down with a chokehold. She would not go out there and kick him in the balls and take his fritter and run away laughing. She would not-

“Can I help you?”

Marty’s eyes flew open in time to catch the nervous expression on the cashier’s face. She took a cleansing breath and then another.

“Yes, can I please have a hot chocolate, and do you have any apple fritters left in back?” she asked, sounding pathetically hopeful.

“Sorry, the only thing we have left are bran muffins and I think we just ran out of hot cocoa.”

Marty sighed miserably. “Of course you did.”

* * *

“Ye really shouldn’t have donethat, lad,” Shayne said as Tristan finished off the last bite of that unbelievably delicious apple fritter. Something about Marty wanting it made it ten times more delicious. He took a healthy sip of his hot cocoa as he looked over the notes he’d made over the weekend.

“She had it coming,” Tristan simply said.

“Tristan, ye need to either stop being an ass and man up and be with the lass or leave her alone. Stop torturing her. It’s not fair.”

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