Chapter Twenty-Two
DOUBTS
Their house was sold, the paperwork signed, and they were to hand the keys over at the end of the month. A week before their move-out date – and the date of their flight to Los Angeles – Amy and Matthew hired the assistance of their friends and family to move their furniture to a nearby storage unit.
With Jackson’s twin-cab ute and Spencer’s spacious trailer, and with everyone’s involvement, the task took only one weekend.
Amy began the Saturday morning by packing boxes, filling them with their novelty items and various house decorations, cleaning as she went. Jackson and Allison, and the boys, soon arrived; Jackson helped Matthew to begin disassembling the lounge room furniture, whilst Allison helped Amy with the packing. Sam and Peter sat outside, playing with their electronic gaming devices.
When Amy’s lounge room had been transferred to Jackson’s ute, Donna and Spencer arrived (the children were spending the weekend at Spencer’s mother’s house), and Spencer went along with Matthew and Jackson to deposit the furniture at the storage unit. Amy, Allison and Donna continued to pack boxes, gossiping as they did.
“This is all so exciting!” Donna squealed. “Moving house is so much fun! And you’ve got a holiday in between!”
Amy groaned, remembering the only previous time she had moved house – from her mother’s home to here. The packing, the moving, the unpacking. “I hate moving.”
“Oh, come on,” Donna disagreed. “You find all the stuff you thought you’d forgotten about. Like this -” Donna pulled an obsure clay creation from the back of the kitchen sink “- did you make this… er, mug in art at school? Such nostalgia.”
Amy held back her laughter, watching Allison’s face contort. “Actually, Peter made that at school last year,” she snapped, now turning to Amy. “I’m sure he’ll be pleased to hear that his only aunt and uncle have put it to good use.”
“We do, alright… it catches the drips from the leaking pipe.”
Amy received a death glare from her sister, and she and Donna tried not to laugh, returning to their packing. They managed to finish the kitchen area and begin on all the electronics by the time their husbands had returned. Spencer and Matthew began work on the dining room and various cabinets, whilst Jackson began moving boxes into the cars.
As mid-afternoon approached, and the house became substantially emptier, Amy began to panic. She said she was going to begin packing away things from her bedroom, but instead sat herself on the floor, her head between her knees, trying to calm herself. An immeasurable amount of time passed her by, but inevitably, Matthew found her.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, sitting down beside her and wrapping his arm around her.
She leant into his side, hugging herself tightly to him.
“Everything’s just happening so quickly,” she eventually revealed. “I mean, it was only last month that you suggested the holiday. The sale of the house was hardly organised. Now it’s all done, ready to go.”
“We don’t have to go to Europe if you’re not ready yet,” Matthew compromised.
“No, it’s not that, Matt. It’s not like it’s ‘too soon’ or anything. I’m just overwhelmed by the speed of things.”
YOU ARE READING
Recovering Amy (Amy, #2)
Romance“You’re mine,” it told her in her dreams, “you don’t deserve happiness”. She would wake up screaming most nights, crying, begging for forgiveness that no one dared to offer her. She was sorry – she didn’t mean for anything quite so terrible to happe...
