Chapter Nineteen

CONNOR*

Taylor had left many of her things at her parent's house when she moved into her apartment because it was a bit on the smaller side. Tanner had lent us boxes from when he and Kaysen had moved, and it had only taken a little over an hour to get everything packed up. The only things Taylor had remaining to pack by eight o'clock at night were the bed garments and bathroom toiletries. Taylor had left out nightwear and a change of clothes for her and Mark for tomorrow, and we had packed everything else. We made sure to label each box in the event something needed to be retrieved from them. Taylor bathed Mark, and then Wade put him to bed while Taylor and I took a hiatus on the couch.

Taylor rested her head in my lap as I put my hands through her hair. "That didn't take long, but I'm sure you're tired. I'll run you a bath so you can get cleaned up and get to bed,"

"But it's so early; I love just being here with you,"

"We will have all the time in the world soon, love, but we have a crazy and very early morning awaiting; I don't want you to wear yourself thin. You know I'm right on this one, I hope,"

"Yes, I know you are right. I'm so close to falling asleep right here and not getting up," Taylor said sleepily, then yawned.

"Ok, I'll be right back; just rest a moment," I said as I carefully scooted off of the couch and laid Taylor's head down.

I prepared Taylor's bath for her, ensuring the bathwater was just right, then went into the living room. I picked Taylor up bridal style and carried her the short distance to the bathroom. I let her down to help her undress and helped her into the bath. I looked around the spacious bathroom and wondered our thoughts on building these apartments. Well, we went along with what the owners wanted for one. Each apartment had a spacious living room and a decent-sized kitchen and dining room. The bathroom, however, was quite large, big enough to have a bathtub and a separate shower. In fact, the bathroom was bigger than either of the bedrooms, measured to be only 12×12 square feet. Hence the reason there wasn't much room left in Taylor's room after putting a king-sized bed in there. Of course, I would only notice this now after the fact, but we had been on a time crunch. The owners had given us a tight window to get the apartment complex completed. I would need to keep that in mind for future apartment complexes going up in the future.

"Are you ok? You're just standing there staring off into space like you're lost?" Taylor asked me, and I turned around to see that she was looking up at me with concern.

"I was thinking about how the dimensions in these apartments are all wrong and how the bedrooms are too small. I know that's crazy; the owner's thoughts were to have a spacious living room and a nice bathroom because that's where families spend most of their time, but still, the bathroom is bigger than the bedrooms. It just doesn't seem right; I'm surprised that Jace missed that. Anyway, relax. I'm going to jump in the shower," I said as I walked into the walk-in shower, and Taylor nodded her head and dunked her head underwater.

I finished up my shower and grabbed my sleeper shorts from my backpack, put them on, and helped Taylor finish cleaning off by scrubbing her back for her, then helped her out of the bathtub.

Taylor got dressed into a tank top and sleeper shorts, and then we walked into the living room to see Wade passed out on the couch in his sleepwear. "I should have thought to have my mom bring an extra pillow and a blanket this afternoon. I feel bad. Should we wake him?" Taylor asked.

"Nah, he's snoring like a baby; he'll be fine. I slept on the couch last night; remember, it was great, actually. Just leave him be; let's get to bed," I said as Taylor put her arms around me and then jumped up to straddle my hips. "I love you, babe,"

I walked the short distance it took to get to Taylor's room, flicked off the light, walked the few steps to her bed, pulled back the duvet, and laid Taylor down. I put my hands through Taylor's hair, and she turned over on her side so that I could spoon her from behind. I wrapped my arm around her, and she nestled as closely as she possibly could into me a sighed sleepily. "I love you too, Connor, more than words could ever express," Taylor said. It wasn't long before we both fell asleep.

***

Six o'clock rolled around so fast, I couldn't remember falling asleep last night, but I felt wired and ready to go for the day. I ended mine and Taylor's alarms and went straight to the bathroom. When I opened the door, Mark was standing there rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I need to pee, and mommy wouldn't wake up,"

"It's ok, bud. The bathroom is all yours, I said as I ruffled Mark's hair, and he dashed off into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

I walked back into Taylor's room and ran my fingers through Taylor's hair. " It's time to wake up, babe, it's after six, and Mark is awake,"

"I know, I just thought if I ignored him, he would go away, and I could get ten more minutes of sleep," Taylor said and chuckled quietly.

"We've got a long day ahead of us. Would you mind waking Wade up? He would enjoy it coming from you more so than me waking him up. I throw pillows at him, whereas you'll give him sweet nothings in his ear," I said as I helped Taylor sit up and kiss her softly.

Mark came out of the bathroom and ran off to his room. "I'll get dressed and then go over to help Mark get ready," I said as Taylor got up from the bed and made her way to the bathroom.

"Ok, thank you, that would be a great help,"

As Taylor said, getting ready this morning was crazy. Even with all three of us tending to Mark, Wade barely left in time to get him to school without being late. Mark is all boy, let me tell ya, I wondered how my mom and dad got along with Wade and me when we were younger.

Taylor and I walked into work and went to our separate offices. I had so much work to do today it wasn't funny; I was going to need to bust my ass to get it done so that I could leave early.

Taylor's place took us only a couple of hours to pack up versus Wade, and my place would take a few days with us having to work as well. But we had this, and by the end of this week, we would all be moved into the new house.

***

"Thank God for your parents having Mark tonight, this was a whole lot more work than I thought it would be," I said as Wade, Taylor, and I all crashed down on mine and Wade's couch.

"My beds still here, so I say we all stay here tonight instead of going back to the house and trying to assemble beds so we can sleep tonight. It's seven o'clock, and we need to get Taylor fed," Wade said as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Wade and I had managed to get my bed unassembled, and most of what we had in our rooms had been packed up, and we had taken everything to the house. Then we had circled around and met Taylor at her apartment, disassembled their beds and packed all their boxes and belongings into our trucks, and had worked on unpacking for a while. We were going to go back to the house and assemble my bed so we could spend our first night alone in the house, but Wade was right. It was getting late, and we were all beat.

"I'm down with that. Taylor, you need rest for sure," I said as I placed a hand on her knee tiredly.

FRIDAY NIGHT*

"TGIF baby, thank God because I'm so done with moving. I don't want to move again ever unless we have to. Moving three times in one month is enough to do me in for a lifetime," Taylor said as she laid her head in Wade's lap and stretched her feet over mine.

"Only two weeks left till you truly become ours; we should be getting to bed since you are going shopping with Lyra, Vega, and Kaysen tomorrow," Wade said as he bent down to kiss Taylor on the forehead.

"I'm glad you remembered because we've been so busy I haven't had time to think. I hope we can all find dresses. Two weeks is pushing it, don't you think?"

"With our mom, your mom, and our Aunt Diana helping, you have nothing to worry about. Believe me, ok; everything is going to work out fine. With your dad being the preacher and using the church, that knocked out a great deal of stress," I said as I massaged Taylor's feet.

"I can't wait to become Mrs. Cunningham," Taylor said as she smiled widely.

"Neither can't, baby, neither can we," Wade and I said in unison, and then we all got up and went to bed.