Karen sat in front of her laptop scrolling through pages of houses. Her Rob and all of the kids had been looking at houses for just over a week. They had all decided that they would each pick two that they liked the look of and then put them together and decide which ones to look at. Jess was the only one who had been surprised at how willing everyone had been with the idea of moving. Harry, Bex and Aiden knew that a bigger house meant that they all got their own rooms. Looking for houses that big in Rochdale though wasn't that simple and between the six of them they had only found four houses. Two of them were in reasonable areas and even though she hadn't told them her and Rob had booked first viewings for them.
"Do you ever put that thing away?" Rob walked into the room and put two glasses of red wine on the coffee table before sitting next to her.
Karen looked at him and shrugged. "It amuses me." She smiled before picking up her glasses and having a mouthful.
"Oh right...is there anything else that amuses you then?" Rob looked at her and stroked some of the stray hairs away from the side of her face.
Karen looked at him and gently shook her head. "Nothing springs to mind Mr Scotcher." She put down her glass and lent back into the sofa. Rob watched her before putting his glass down.
"Right..." He sat for a moment before suddenly starting to tickle her ribs.
"Rob stop it." Karen was breathless from the laughing, he knew all of the spots she was most ticklish and was exploiting all of them.
Eventually Rob relented and sat above her looking at her flustered face. "God you are gorgeous." He lent down and kissed her on her lips.
"Mmm...you're not bad yourself." She dragged him a little closer by slipping her hands into his jeans pockets. She felt him turn her legs so she was lying flat on the sofa.
Gently he moved his kiss down her neck pausing on the crook before her neck and her shoulders. There his kiss intensified, he could feel the area getting hotter.
Karen could feel the area starting to bruise...she knew that she shouldn't let him, it would cause to many questions, but she couldn't stop. She didn't want to stop.
"GROSS!" Rob leapt off her as they both heard Harry's outraged cry from the door to the room. "I see enough of that at school thanks." He pulled a second disgusted face before leaving the room and firmly shutting the door behind him.
Karen looked at Rob and bit her lip. "Oops." That was it, they both burst out laughing at the situation.
"Remind me that we need a house with two sitting rooms...them and us." Rob winked at her before kissing her again.
Karen looked at him. "God knows what you're doing to me Rob...but when I'm with you." She broke off. She wasn't even sure what she felt, or what it meant. "I've never felt like this before." It was weird to hear herself saying the words. If she had been asked a year ago then she would of quick as a flash told anyone that she had loved Charlie, and she was sure that she had. But with Rob it was completely different. She felt herself aching for him when they were apart, and when they were together it was as though no one else existed.
"I love you Karen..." He kissed her again. This time it was tender, there was nothing else behind it apart from to back up the words he had just used. The door behind them opened again and Jess and Aiden stood there smirking at them.
"I hear that you two have been upsetting Harry again." Aiden tried not to laugh as he looked at them.
"Worse that a pair of teenagers." Jess was unable to stop herself from laughing. She winked at her Mum who blushed.
Rob nodded. "Finished?" He grabbed his wallet. "Here." He chucked some money at Aiden. "Go and get everyone some fish and chips and then we'll talk about these houses."
Aiden saluted at him before him and Jess left to go and find out what everyone wanted.
Karen looked at Rob again. She smiled at him and reached up a hand to trace from his right eye down to his mouth. She lent forward replaced her finger with a kiss. "I don't want to lose you." She looked up at him, she didn't even want to think about the possibility, but she had to. She had been hurt too many times before.
"Never." Rob looked at her. "I'm not going anywhere. We are going to eat fish and chips together for the next forty years...we're going to grow old disgracefully and I am going to make you my wife. I love you Karen...I love you more than I've ever loved anyone."
Karen looked at him with tears in her eyes. "I don't want to screw this up...I just seem to make a habit of hurting the people I love the most." She turned her head away. "Maybe you deserve more than me." Behind the confident exterior most people saw of Karen Fisher there was a woman who was still unsure of her own self worth. She still couldn't get her head around the fact that Rob wanted to be with her.
"One day I will get it into your head quite how amazing you are." Rob looked at her. He hated the fact that she thought so little of herself, but he hoped that he could slowly changed that. "You have three kids who love you, and a middle aged man gob smacked that he has managed to catch you." He slipped his hand around her waist and pulled her close. She didn't resist and rested her head against his chest. They sat there twining there fingers with each other. Neither wanted to break the physical connection keeping them so close. Finally it was Rob that spoke. He didn't need to articulate what he was talking about, because as far as he was concerned it covered everything. "We're going to be amazing Karen...absolutely bloody amazing."
