Page 146 of Mountain Men Heroes
“The guys are going to be mad. I just sent them to the grocery store for ice cream.” Zahara leaned in and he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, passing her the large basket of goodies from his bakery. “Sounds like a perfect combination if you ask me. And I don’t think those two could ever get mad at you. Even if they had to go to the North Pole for the ice cream.”
Zahara’s smiled widened. “True. Come in.” She waved him in and he dusted the snow from his shoulders.
Warmth surrounded him as he walked through the door, greeted by the smell of something simmering on the stove. “Smells good.” He inhaled long and hard. Good food always calmed a man’s nerves but his stomach clenched with an uneasy queasiness.
“It’s really coming down out there. It must be something pretty big that brings you here. What’s up? Something happened between you and my sister?”
“Always perceptive, aren’t you?”
“I call it mommy genes. It’s like little Spidey senses that go off with anything that concerns Ivy.” Zahara busied herself in the kitchen putting all the little pies from the basket out on a platter. “Grab a bowl and help yourself. There’s cornbread in the oven and apple cider or beer if you prefer.”
“Thank you.” Growing up in a town the size of Savage Ridge where everyone really did know everyone, going back decades and long before he and his brothers were born, he knew refusing a plate when offered was a sign of disrespect. He served himself a ladle full of beef stew and thanked Zahara for the bread she placed on the counter for him as he pulled up a stool.
The modern apartment looked much like his over the bar and bakery with the exception of a larger kitchen. Something Zahara had insisted on.
He took a bite of the stew but the usual pleasure of Zahara’s cooking didn’t settle on the tongue as easy as it normally did. “It’s delicious. Thank you.”
“Liar.” She tossed at him with a kind smile. “I know when a man fakes and that frown on your face says a thousand words without even trying. Now tell me, why are you really here?”
“First, you doing okay? The babies?”
“Yep, Holden and Riley nearly had a heart attack when I showed them the ultrasound of two little heads and two sets of legs and arms.”
“Do you know if they are boys or girls?”
“No. Little critters wouldn’t show us this time around and Holden said he’d rather be surprised anyway so you know. Ethan, on the other hand, is having a hissy fit drawing up the plans for the nursery.”
“Serves him right.” Damon chuckled. He paused a moment. “Can I ask you something?”
Zahara reached out and patted his hand. “Damon, what’s on your mind? You look like a bear with a thorn in his paw.”
Adequate but it was more through his chest at the moment. “It’s Ivy. What the hell happened in your childhood that has her so damn hell-bent on shoving everything good that happens to her to the side?”
A sadness slipped over Zahara’s face, and he cursed under his breath for even bringing the subject up. “Look. Maybe I should just ask Ivy. Make her tell me even if it takes a set of cuffs to keep her from running away.”
“Good luck with that. You think I’m stubborn. That girl suffers from many things including stubbornness.”
Damon finished his plate and pushed it to the side as Zahara settled a cup of coffee in front of him and grabbed one for herself.
“There’s something you need to know about Ivy and me. We didn’t grow up in a family like you did. Where mom and dad were there for us when we fell flat on our faces or when we scored good grades. No one to cheer us on and support us. We had four walls most of our lives and at least one good meal a day. But that was the silver lining.”
“Son of a bitch.” Damon fisted his hand and bit back the stronger string of curses he wanted to let loose. “How much fucking worse did it get?” He really didn’t want to hear this. If anyone had hurt her, he’d hunt them down and make them fear the simple act of drawing breath.
“What really killed my little sister inside were when people, moms and dads, walked into the orphanage with the nuns and looked at all of all the kids playing or studying or whatever we were doing at the time. They were not supposed to let us know they were looking to see which of us would fit into their lives the best, but this was a small place and the nuns didn’t really follow all the rules. I can’t tell you how many people would pass over us like puppies in a pound or worse, trash.” Zahara paused and he could see the past weigh on her as she fiddled with the new wedding band around her ring finger. “The nuns loved us in their own way, and Ivy and I even managed to get adopted by a family.” She looked up and offered a small smile.
“Before you and your sister came to Savage Ridge I never thought much of fate really. Now it’s grabbed me by the balls and well, here I am. So what happened with the family who adopted you?” The more he heard about their time the more he might be able to decipher how to help Ivy.
“The wife was a sweet lady, but when her husband fell ill and lost his job they couldn’t care for us anymore so, back we went. It really hurt Ivy, too. She took a real liking to the lady. A year later I turned eighteen and took my sister out but not before all the rejection messed with her head.”
“There was more than one family I take it.”
She nodded but didn’t give him any more. He thought he was a clam. “She said something about your mom. What happened to your parents?”
He watched her for the slightest clue to the answers he needed, but she gave none away as she contemplated her thoughts before answering. “She should be the one to tell you all this, not me. We share the past, but I don’t know. It seems like it all should come from her.”
“We slept together tonight, Zahara. I’ve claimed her in ways I never thought possible for a man and I’m not entirely talking sexually. She’s left me wondering about Christmas miracles and soul mates. Hell, not even that. She has me knowing they all exist.” He didn’t mean to blurt it out but it tumbled over the tip of his tongue and dropped like an atomic bomb in the middle of his lap.
Zahara cupped both of her hands of her mouth. “And she’s wanting to run.”