Page 147 of Mountain Men Heroes

He nodded. “Now I see why. She’s afraid I’ll leave her high and dry like all those other assholes in her past.”

His hand went to the back of his neck as a wave of heat consumed the entire circumference of his neck. He stretched at the neck of his shirt but it didn’t help. “Anything else you can tell me might help me break through this wall she’s erected against anyone who wants to get close. Do you know who your parents were?”

“Dad was a workaholic and left to work here of all places. Not Savage Ridge, but Alaska back when they installed the pipeline. Mom couldn’t take care of two kids on her own when he left and her recreational fling with narcotics became a lifelong passion until she took one pill too many. I found her one morning dead and Dad might as well be dead. His last trip out he never came back.”

“Some people do not deserve to have kids.”

Perched on the end of her stool, Zahara looked at her plump belly, and the sudden urge to see Ivy with his child sucker-punched him in the gut and nearly blew him off his own stool.

“There’s something you need to understand about Ivy, Damon. She’s fiercely independent and fears looking weak or in need. It took me months just to get her here and only the news of the babies got her moving.” She clasped his hands between hers. “I know she’s dropped out from her classes, but I’m not all that sure if that’s what is bothering her. Or if she’s done wanting to be a doctor. But she won’t talk to me. I think she believes her problems would be a burden with the little ones on the way. I’m worried. She’s keeping something pent up inside and I think you might be the only one to help her. Honestly, I’m afraid she’s going to pull away entirely. I can sense it.”

“You would be right.”

A cold blast of air rushed through the open door as Holden and Riley pushed it open with their feet, their arms laden with a variety of ice creams and toppings in several different bags. Holden kicked off the snow as Riley rushed in behind him. The cold didn’t really bother them but they were more worried about their woman getting cold with the door wide open, as he would be for Ivy. “We didn’t know what you wanted so we got everything.”

“More like we didn’t want to mistake what the next craving would be so we got everything and then some,” Riley corrected Holden.

“That too,” he admitted with a laugh.

Damon shoved aside his personal problems for a moment and helped unload the bags from their arms so they could brush off the powdery snow before wetting the floor.

“Hey, man, thanks. What’s brought you by?”

“Can’t a brother come over and keep a sister company?”

“Sure, especially if you bring those little pies you make.”

“Check,” Zahara offered like she’d won the lottery. “Didn’t let him through the door without them.” Holden walked over to Zahara and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.

“Glad to know you guys have your priorities all lined up. I also had the head baker place in a few other things. New breads and pastries I’m trying out.”

Armed with a little more information than what he began the night with, Damon clasped hands with Riley and then Holden before giving his sister-in-law a hug. “Thank you. You take care of my little nieces or nephews. I’m already working on a special little something down at the bakery in their honor.”

Zahara beamed up at him, and his heart lightened a fraction at seeing her smile return.

“Are you not staying, bro? What’s the rush?”

Zahara wound her hands around Holden and Riley. “You boys let him go. He has some work to do.”

Both looked at him but didn’t say anything else. Didn’t have to. Both his brother and the new brother that came into the family with their union with Zahara understood instantly.

He turned and palmed the handle to the door. When he was on the job he would become focused like a laser beam. He could feel tunnel vision coming on now and one black-haired green-eyed angel was his sole focus.

“Hey, Damon.”

He turned back to Zahara where she stood in the kitchen with her men. Her new family. Something he wanted to give Ivy if she would only let him show her what that kind of happiness meant.

“Yeah?”

Zahara crossed the apartment and grabbed a scarf he’d seen her work on here and there when she would visit the bar. She wound it around his neck and waited to speak until he raised his gaze to hers. “Be gentle with her. She’s trying her best and when she is ready, she’ll let you in. Just show her the love I know you have in your heart and she’ll be unable to deny the gravitational pull you Savage men have over a woman.”

He nodded. Before Ivy his heart didn’t want love and he was perfectly fine with hooking up with one-night stands and tourists that liked an adventure with a mountain man. Now he only wanted her.

“There’s one more thing you should know. Be ready for her to run. I did it and if Loren and Riley hadn’t stopped me I wouldn’t be here.”

“Yes, you would. We would have crawled our way to Texas to find you and beg you to take us as your husbands.”

He wouldn’t let her get that far without a fight. He was foolish to try to fight the connection he felt and looking back, it was ridiculous to even try. He wanted her plain and simple. Now he had to peel back the layers for her to see them without the jaded past blocking the full view.