Page 42 of When I Found You

“I can’t believe we finally have the keys!” I muse, once inside the truck.

“Believe it, babe. This house is nowourhome, and I can’t wait to come home to you every night here.”

“Morning, gorgeous,”Peyton’s raspy voice says into my ear the next morning.

“Morning,” I sleepily tell him.

“We need to get up. The guys are going to be here in an hour and we still have to go pick up the U-Haul.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble. “Why did you arrange them to come so early again?”

“Nine in the morning isn’t early, babe. Plus, it’s going to take a good chunk of the day.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say again, then he starts to tickle my sides. “All right, I’m up!”

I get up and toss on some jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt. I pull my hair up into a messy bun, brush my teeth, and call it good for the day.

“How about I drop you off to get the moving truck, and then stop and pick up some breakfast pizzas, donuts, and a carafe of coffee,” I suggest.

“Sounds like a good plan,” he says, grabbing his truck keys, and we head out the door a few minutes later.

Forty minutes later, I return to my condo, food and coffee in hand, and find Ethan, Carson, and Peyton conversing in the living room as they decide the best order to load all the furniture into the truck.

“Hey, guys!” I greet. “Thanks for the help today. I come bearing food and coffee.”

“Hey, Stacey!” they reply as they descend on the food and coffee.

“Cam should be here shortly,” Ethan tells me after his first bite of breakfast pizza.

“Awesome, I’ll appreciate her help today.”

Once we’ve all filled our stomachs, the guys start dismantling the furniture and loading it up while I focus on the boxes. Cam arrived a few minutes ago and she jumped right in to help me with everything.

Hours later, with the moving truck fully packed and the back end of Peyton’s truck loaded down with a few other things, my condo is finally empty. I walk through the empty rooms, double-checking drawers and cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen to make sure nothing got forgotten.

I can’t believe I’m actually moving out of here. It was the first place I ever rented, outside of when I lived with some girlfriends in college, in an apartment off-campus my junior and senior years.

“Ready to hit the road?” Peyton asks, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around me.

“Yep, just taking it all in. It’s so surreal,” I tell him.

“Take all the time you need. I’ll be out in the truck when you’re ready.”

“I’m good. Let’s go,” I tell him, following him out of the room, and out of the unit I’ve called home for the last few years.

All our friends follow us to our new place, and help get everything unloaded and the furniture reassembled. They’re all godsends for giving up their Saturday to help us. Without their help, it would have taken us multiple weekends to get this all done. It’s amazing how much stuff I had in my place. I never thought it would be so much, but thankfully, all my furniture fitsnicely into our new house. We’ll probably have to pick up a few new things as we settle in, but nothing huge anytime soon.

“Thank you all again so much for your help today,” I say as we all chow down on some Chinese takeout I ordered in for everyone.

“Anytime. That’s what friends are for,” Ethan tells us.

“We’ll have to have everyone over for a cookout this spring, once it warms back up,” Peyton says. “By then, we’ll be fully moved in and unpacked, and y’all can come see what we’ve done to the place.”

“We’re holding you to that,” Cam replies.

We visit with our friends a while longer as everyone relaxes from the busy day we’ve had. After we unloaded everything from my place, the guys went up and got all of Peyton’s things and brought them back here. Cam and I stayed here and worked on getting the kitchen stuff all unpacked and put away since we’ll need it immediately. I also got the bed all made up so that once everyone leaves, we have a place to collapse and fall asleep.

With all our friends gone and the moving truck returned, we settle in for our first night in our house. I’m still giddy with excitement as we slide into bed together.

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