It Will Always Be Us (Always #2)

Chapter Three

A week later and the apartment was more boxes than apartment. Boxes stacked to the ceiling, boxes from wall to wall, they were everywhere. It was madness inside, and Jasper and I were in the middle of it, quite literally.

"Jasper!" I yelled. He froze, looking at me in question. I only pointed down to where he'd almost stood on a small box containing my vinyl collection. They were way too expensive and precious to be crushed by a foot. When he stepped back, I let out a breath of relief. "Oh thank god this is almost over."

Jasper nodded in agreement. The moving truck would be here tomorrow morning. It was surreal to see the tiny apartment I'd made my home become this. A home of boxes. But it no longer held only my boxes, it now held Jasper's boxes, our boxes. I hadn't only made this apartment my home, with Jasper, in the last year, we'd made it 'our' apartment.

I took a moment to look around the apartment as Jasper shuffled through the boxes to stand in a safe spot. As excited as I was for the newest part of our lives to take place, it wasn't going to be easy to let Rosenwood become a part of my past. It was all that I'd ever known.

"We're really leaving tomorrow, Jas. It's really happening. New home, new job, new life. We're really going to be doing this!"

"We really are." Jasper smiled from across the room. If it weren't for him and his calming smiles, I'd be a wreck far worse than what I currently was. He was holding me together, the same thing he's been doing since we got engaged.

When we got back from Paris, my mind went into full out overload mode. I couldn't think clearly about anything. There was too much stress in my life. Even with taking a semester off of school, the stress was still sky high.

There was the planning a wedding on top of all my hospital bills, my physical therapy exercises, there was my job, preparing for the next semester where I'd be taking on more classes to make up for the semester I wasn't there. Carly promised me she'd give me time to do the homework for the classes while still working whenever I'd found time.

She was another support system. She'd been thrilled about our engagement, greeting us at the airport when we returned. It was then she'd told me about the next semester and work schedule she'd come up with for me. I was so jet-lagged at the time, I hadn't completely processed what she'd said and gave her the okay. I regretted it once it came into effect the next semester, which I was nearing the end of now.

Exams were a month away. And it was because of Jasper, talking to me, humming to me, soothing my nerves that I'd made it through. I'd made it through all of that and continued to do so with a smile on my face.

"My parents will be here with the moving truck at nine." I start, maneuvering through the boxes to meet him. "Then we'll start loading that and we'll, be on the road hopefully before dark."

When I reached him, he set down a box and put his arms around me, securing me to his chest. His heart beat at a steady, calming pace. He was so warm where we touched, I couldn't live a day without him, I knew that now without a doubt.

"It'll be a lot of work. It's a good thing we already put some in both of our cars."

That made me frown. In the end, we'd be taking three vehicles. Jasper and I would drive our own cars respectively and my parents would be driving the moving truck. This was going to be a test in many ways.