Karen lay in bed. Rob was asleep with his arms wrapped loosely around her. They had been talking for over an hour before he had eventually fallen asleep. Karen just couldn't seem to drift off. She couldn't get any of the days events to leave her mind. Rob had kept on about how it wasn't her fault, but it didn't help. He made her feel better temporarily. However now he had fallen asleep and she was left to think all of the guilt had come flooding back.
When Jess had come to her and told her she was pregnant the identity of the father was talked about. Karen knew that Jess didn't have a steady boyfriend, or at least she wasn't aware of one. Jess had simply told her mother that the father was someone she had met in a club and gone home with. Due to Jess having gone through stages of having one night stands in the past Karen had just gone along with it...but now she was starting to think that she should have questioned her daughter harder about the babies Dad.
It wasn't a secret that Jess had been through her rebellious stage. Soon after Karen had joined the school it came out that Jess was sneaking out most nights and going home with different men, but they had talked about it and Jess had managed to turn things around, she had pulled up her grades and made some friends...she was even nicer to Harry at home. Karen winced as she remembered how quickly she had accepted Jess' story about the father being a one night stand. She should have seen through it. The Jess of a year ago wasn't the same girl sleeping in her bedroom down the hall now...something was wrong about all of this and Karen was determined to find out what.
...
Karen stirred from her sleep as a warm and familiar smell flooded her head. She gently opened her eyes to see Rob sitting next to her with a steaming cup of coffee. He lent down and kissed her forehead before putting the coffee down next to her. "The kids are all up and moving, I thought we could go in together this morning...put on a united front and all that?"
Karen nodded. In all her worrying about last night she had managed to forget that her and Jess were going back to school today. That in itself would cause a whole new set of problems. Karen knew though that she had to talk to Jess soon...she really needed to understand what was going on and how best to help her daughter. She pushed herself up to sitting. She was careful to hold the duvet so it was still covering herself. It wasn't that she was uncomfortable with Rob, she just didn't think that any of the kids who barged in without knocking needed to see that much of her. "Thanks for this." She picked up the milky coffee and took a deep drink.
Rob sat next to her and stroked some of the hair from her face. "You were meant to be relaxing last night, and I'm pretty sure you managed four hours sleep maximum." He ran a thumb over her lip.
She looked at him. "I know...I just couldn't stop think a bout Jess...and well everything." She looked into his grey-green eyes. "I'm not sure I could do this on my own Rob." Sometimes it scared her how honest she was with him, but she trusted him with all of her being...
"I'm not going anywhere. I promise." Rob took the coffee cup from her hand and lent forward putting one hand around the back of her head and pulling her into a kiss. She didn't fight it, in fact she melted into the kiss and let him take charge. When she was kissing him nothing else mattered.
"I need to get up." She spoke into his lips. They both knew it was true but neither of them wanted to stop.
"We should skive off..." Rob spoke between kissing her, he started moving his kisses down on to her neck, making her let out little moans of pleasure. "What do they need you for anyway."
"You know we can't..." Karen said the words but she made no attempt to stop Rob's kisses which were moving further down her neck and towards the chest. He was gently pushing her backwards and moving his hands under the duvet covering her.
"Why not Mrs Fisher...you do after all make the rules." This time it was Rob's turn to gasp as he felt a shiver run through Karen's body and into his. He had never felt this connection with anyone. He had loved Naomi, at least in some way, but it was different with Karen. Even the simplest of touches made them shiver...she had made him feel in ways that he would never have believed possible.
"I have to be there for Jess...you know that." Karen pushed herself up again and with one final kiss got out of the bed and wrapped her robe around herself.
Rob nodded. "Amazing headteacher, fabulous Mum, gorgeous lover...anything else you wanted to throw into the mix?" Rob stood up from where he was sitting on the bed and wrapped two arms around Rob's waist.
She looked at him thinking. "Well I don't know...I was hoping for something along the lines of girlfriend...or partner..." She kissed him gently.
He looked at when the kiss broke apart. "Karen...you know how much you mean to me right...I want to spend the rest of my life with you, if everything wasn't so complicated then I would get down on one knee and propose right at the moment...but you know that I can't..." He brushed her hair back behind her ears before leaning forward to whisper. "There is nothing I want more in this world than to be able to call you my wife."
She felt her whole body lift. "You mean it?" She looked towards the man who had flipped her world upside down. She hadn't been looking for it, yet here he was.
"I promise." He kissed her again. "Now...you need to get ready for school, we can't have the kids waiting for us." He playfully slapped her bum before heading out of the door to get started on breakfast.
Karen watched him leave, she wasn't sure what day it was, or the time...the one thing she was certain of was how much he meant to her. She shook her head to break the constant girlie thoughts. Today had to be about Jess, it was going to be tough enough going back, without having to talk about the babies father. Karen sighed...she had the feeling that it was going to be a long day.
