Page 15 of Her Protector on Route 14 (Love Along Route 14 #6)
Three Years Later
“You’re in another magazine and didn’t tell me!” Tanner says in greeting before lifting me up and hugging me tightly.
I gasp and wait for him to put me down so I can turn in his arms and kiss him.
Tanner groans and rubs my hips, pulling me tighter against him.
Three years of bliss, a year and a half of marriage and I still melt anytime he kisses me, still catch myself daydreaming about my husband, and still can’t believe that this man loves me.
“That’s nothing,” I say softly.
“It’s everything! My wife is in gallery exhibits and magazines for her photography and her creative eye. I found this at Kathy’s! Why you didn’t tell me?!” he says.
Despite how stoic he still is when he works as a private guide for exclusive off-grid excursions, he’s opened up so much. Three years together and he just keeps sharing more of himself, tells me about his days, asks about what I’m reading or working on. There’s no one in the world more supportive.
“I forgot about it,” I reply with a shrug, then kiss him again. “I was planning our next road trip. Alaska, remember?”
“How could I forget?” he asks.
He takes my hand and runs his hand over my wedding band.
Despite the fact he got me the perfect engagement ring, it’s the wedding band that matters to him.
I kiss him again as I think about our intimate ceremony in Lover’s Stroll Park.
The place of our first kiss, where we started, and where we sealed our wedding vows.
“What else haven’t you told me?” he teases, eyes glinting with amusement. “Sold a photo to a king? A queen? Maybe a reclusive billionaire with a private island?”
I laugh, tracing slow circles on his chest. “Not yet. But have you ever led royalty through the wilderness? Maybe taught a tech tycoon how to make a fire?”
He grins. “Let’s start dinner, and I’ll tell you all about it.” He pauses, leans in, kisses me softly, and adds, “I love you.”
He says it every day—just like he promised in his vows. And every time, it hits just as hard.
I melt into his side. “I love you more. More than yesterday. Less than tomorrow.”
“That’s my line,” he mutters, then gives me that thoughtful look, the one that always makes my heart stutter. He pulls me even closer, like it’s never quite close enough.
“I never thought I’d want this kind of life,” he says quietly. “Coming home for dinner. Traveling once a month. Always being with someone.”
“You can still do your week-long excursions,” I tease. “I’ll keep the home fires burning.”
He shakes his head with a small, stubborn smile. “Absolutely not. I’d spend the whole damn time wishing I was back here. Loving you… it’s set me free, Holly. In a way I didn’t even know I was stuck.”
I nudge his side. “Save that line for our anniversary. You’ll make me cry before dessert.”
He chuckles, but I can see it in his eyes—this isn’t a line. This is the man who shows up for me every day, and when he does speak the words, they carry the weight of everything he feels.
“I’m serious, Holly. I don’t tell you enough how much you changed my life. I thought loving someone meant accepting the pain of losing them. I thought it was a tether to a life I didn’t want, but you proved I was wrong,” He takes my hand and puts it on his chest. “Keep doing it. Forever.”
I laugh and tear up a little. It’s like when he steals kisses in public when no one is looking.
Because it’s for us. We don’t have to prove our relationship or our feelings to anyone but each other and as long as I’m Tanner’s wife, I know I’m loved, I’m supported, and I’m happier than I could be with anyone else.
All because my car broke down and I had the luck of meeting him.
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