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," he 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 and willingly put up with his mother's nagging.

"Marty's there and mom started to interrogate her when I left."

*-*-*-*

"Your children are going to be so cute," Beth said on a happy 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 had started the second she’d walked into the kitchen.

"Don't you think their babies are going to 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 beseeching look to her father only to find the man shrugging off her silent cry for help as he took a sip of his 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, arguing and questioning the man to death. 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 her. 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 ignoring the inquisition that refused to end.

"Tristan's house is perfect for a large family," Beth noted as she worried her bottom lip, no doubt trying to decide which room would be appropriate for a nursery.

"We're just dating," Marty felt obligated to point out even though she wasn't really sure that was even 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 Ben and Jerry's away from her and practically dragged her here, she would still be in her room preparing for the heartache that she was afraid 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 momentary spark of panic, but it was quickly extinguished when she reminded herself that Tristan was stubborn and would probably get out of this. From what she’d heard, he hadn't come over for dinner for close to two months, but that was understandable since he worked long hours and didn't usually have time 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 she did this type of thing 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, she was actually terrifying her just a tad. It also made everything worse.

The only man she’d ever loved was pushing her away and she had absolutely no idea what she should do or say to stop him. It had never bothered her before if 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 most importantly, she hadn't fallen for them the way she had when she first laid eyes on Tristan. She was in love with him and wanted to fall asleep every night in his arms and wake up with him every morning and that would probably never happen now.

Tristan didn't let anyone get close to him, not even his own family and why she 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 by suddenly dropping out of her life and now he was probably doing it again, she realized as panic finally set in.

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

"Fine," she lied, pasting a smile that she didn't feel at the moment on her face and praying that Beth took pity on her and let the subject of her and Tristan drop.

"You look a little pale, sweetheart," Beth noted, frowning as she looked Marty over.

Marty started to tell her 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 into knots as she waited for Tristan to break her heart and she couldn't help but wonder why.

Why was she waiting around and leaving it all up to him? She wasn't a kid anymore, too afraid to say something and find out that it was because of something that she’d said or did that chased him off. If he wanted to end things, then he'd damn well better tell her to her face this time, she decided as she turned around 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.

"I'm fine, Dad. There's just something that I need to do," she 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 she needed to do in order to get answers. If it turned out that he was walking away from her again, she'd accept it. She'd end things this time, making sure that he didn't know just how badly he'd hurt her and this time she would be the one walking away.

Only she wouldn't be coming back.

Chapter 23

"Oh.......shit," Denny and Shayne groaned as the three of them watched Marty storm out of his parents' house, looking furious. When she spotted Tristan, her eyes narrowed dangerously and her movements became clipped as she headed straight for him.

"You," Marty said, pointing a finger at him for emphasis, "and I are going to have a talk."

"We'll talk later," Tristan said with a resigned sigh as he moved to make his way to his parents' house, in no way ready to talk about the bullshit that went down today when Marty stepped into his path, blocking him.

"No, I think now's a good time, don't you?" she asked, arms folded over her chest as she looked up at him, cocking a well-trimmed brow in clear challenge.

"And I think that we'll talk about this later," he said, moving to step around her when her next words made everything in him go still.

"If you walk away again, Tristan, that's it. I'm done," she warned and he knew by the determined look on her face that she meant it. There would be no second chances with her. If he didn't talk to her about something that he'd rather never think about again, she would walk away and destroy him.

"I don't know what's going on," Denny said, confirming Tristan’s suspicions that neither Hank nor Marty had talked about what happened earlier, "but can't this wait until after dinner?"