Page 106 of Tanner

“Morning, husband of mine.”

He kisses my lips while reaching to run his hand down my naked body. “Hot damn, my wife has a banging body,” he teases, making me laugh.

He slaps my ass and rolls off the bed, grabbing his jeans off the floor. “I’m going to go to the bank and then pick us up some coffee and bagels. I’ll be right back. I didn’t want you to think I’d ghosted you after our wedding night.” He winks.

“Ha-ha-ha.” I playfully hit him in the back as he puts his pants on.

He stands to button them and then leans down, kissing me again before heading toward the door.

I grab a blanket to wrap around me when I remember. “Oh, where did you put the copy of our marriage license? I’m going to make a copy for April to attach to the prenup.”

Tanner’s hair whips in his face as he looks at me, confused. “What prenup?”

“She drafted a document yesterday for me to sign, stating that I relinquish any rights to your company and inheritance.”

“That’s beyond fucked up.”

I am taken aback by his reaction. “I think you meant to say, Thank you, Harper, for proving you only married me for love and not money.”

“Thank you, Harper, for already thinking this marriage is doomed to fail.”

Rising from the bed, I pad over to where he’s standing with his hands fisted at the sides and his chest puffed out. I love angry Tanner. I lift up onto my toes and give him a soft kiss.

“We’ll agree to disagree. From what you told me about your family and from what I saw of Missy, I know what will be perceived and I don’t want there to be any question.”

“You care too much about what others think,” he speaks into the kiss.

“I do. Get over it. Your wife has quirks. And she loved you when she assumed you were a starving artist.” With a final kiss, I smile. “I have to swing by her apartment later to bring it to her and get it notarized.”

With a reluctant sigh, he nods over to his desk against the wall. “I put it in the top drawer. Our official marriage license doesn’t come for a few weeks.” He kisses my forehead. “Just so you know, I think this idea is bullshit, but I love you anyway.”

He pulls a sweater over his head and ties up his hair. I admire his backside as he walks out the door. After a few moments of checking out the sapphire ring on my hand, I go to the desk, tightly holding the blanket around me as a chill runs up my legs from the cold floor.

After sitting in his desk chair, I open the top drawer and see a very organized file cabinet drawer. Everything is color-coded and labeled clearly. There’s a purple file with a tab that reads, Mrs. Sexton. I pull it out, and the receipt for my ring, the bill from City Hall, and the copy I was looking for is all in there.

I’m making a copy on his home scanner when I glance down at the open file drawer. One very thick file is labeled, Marina Sexton.

He told me he had done all his own research of his mom’s accident, but seeing the worn-out tab and folded edges of the well-used file makes my stomach fall. He really does have it.

Even though he’s been very open about his mother’s accident—well, as open as someone might want to be—I have more questions, especially after meeting his father and Missy, but it’s such a hard topic to segue into.

I bite my thumbnail and look behind me. Tanner only left a few minutes ago. I could just take a peek. He told me the file is here, so I assume it’s not confidential. I just have a few personal questions that maybe I can have answered without having to upset him.

It’s curiosity that killed the cat, yet a cat has nine lives, so I let my curiosity get the best of me.

Taking the file out of the drawer, I place it on the desk and open it with anticipation running through my veins. Newspaper clippings sit atop the stack of papers, and a picture of his mom is splashed across the front page. She was a beautiful woman, someone you could tell was full of life. I see where Tanner got his blue eyes and blond hair.

I flip through the papers, turning each one and skimming the details. Photos of the three boys standing strong together at her funeral break my heart, especially the sight of the fourteen-year-old with floppy hair and a tear-filled face.

I can tell which one is Bryce just by the photo and the way he already looks like he has the world on his shoulders. Losing your mother is hard enough, but after meeting his father, I can’t imagine what the boys endured just to keep their mom’s memory alive.

To my surprise, Tanner was able to obtain a copy of the police report as well. This must be what he took from his father’s office years ago when no one would tell him the details.

There are copies of shorthand notes and a long typed-out report. I read the story he’s already told me.

Edward Sexton was on the phone with his wife when she said a deer jumped in front of her vehicle. The accident was investigated over the course of three days. An autopsy and toxicology report show the driver wasn’t impaired at the time of the accident. Foul play was ruled out.

I flip through photographs from the accident. The series starts with the road she was driving on when the car drifted off-road, then flipped over an embankment, and landed upside down in the brush forty feet below. It’s no wonder she didn’t survive the crash. I spare myself the section that shows her bruised and bloodied body after it was extracted from the marsh.