Underneath It All (Storm Series)

by Carr, Cassandra

  “Well, I had an idea.” Rob was squirming like one of her kids when they had to go potty, but she was pretty sure that wasn’t the case now.

  His expression was serious, though, and her eyes narrowed. “Okayyyy.”

  “The Storm is playing tonight. It’s the first night that the kids who were picked to go see a game as part of the reading program will be in the box Seb and I bought. The box itself is full, but if you wanted to go say hi to them and then watch the game from the press box, we could do that. No pressure, of course. I just, um, thought you might find watching from the press box a unique experience.”

  “I can do that? Do I need a ticket?”

  “Nope. Stick with me, kid.”

  “Oh, that sounds so cool! I’d love to do that.”

  “Then we will.”

  Alaina went home shortly after the conversation to tally up the supplies she’d need for the upcoming week as well as make sure her lesson plans were complete. Once those tasks were done, she only had time for a couple of errands before Rob picked her up for the game. He’d told her injured players were all different—some came to every game even if they didn’t play, others stayed away. He tended to stay away since watching helplessly as the team played grated on him.

  She wondered if that strategy was flawed on his part, though, if he was feeling so down. Maybe being around the guys more would help with that, but it wasn’t her place to tell him how to deal with his situation. But given what he’d said about distancing himself, Rob was obviously doing this for her benefit, and she lost another piece of her heart to the man.

  The game was fun, and seeing the smiles on the tiny faces of the kids who’d won the suite for the night was indescribable. Since Rick had been scratched, he hung out with them too. She learned that the team’s enforcer wasn’t always deemed necessary so Rick only played about half of the games.

  The rest of the weekend passed by in a blur, and all too soon, Alaina found herself in her classroom on Monday morning, distributing safety scissors and scraps of wallpaper for the kids to cut up and glue onto card stock for holiday cards for their families.

  The day, as usual, flew by, and once the kids had gone and she’d cleaned up the room, she checked her phone. She had a text from Rob.

  Rob: Got clearance to start some really light skating again. Way earlier than I thought.

  She smiled, picturing the look on Rob’s face when he’d been given that piece of news.

  Alaina: Awesome, that should help you get back into game shape, right? You’re doing great! Keep working hard.

  Alaina walked out of the school and climbed into her car. The heater had barely kicked in by the time she got home, and she sighed. About the last thing she needed right now was an expensive car repair, but she’d turn into an icicle if the heater got any worse.

  She ate lunch then went grocery shopping. One advantage of not working in the afternoons was being free to do things like attend doctor’s appointments and shop when the places were less busy. When she got home, she first started a chicken dish in the Crock-pot on high so dinner would be ready around seven and then finally sat down.

  Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she dug it out.

  Rob: What’re you doing for dinner?

  Laughing, Alaina shook her head. Rob was a typical man—always concerned when and where his next meal was coming from.

  Alaina: Put stuff for chicken Marsala in the Crock-pot. Want to do dinner? I’ll have plenty.

  She picked up the remote from the coffee table and flipped on the TV. She felt out of touch with the world. She and Rob weren’t spending every moment together, but between him and her school stuff, she hadn’t caught up on the news for a while.

  Rob: I’d love to, if you’re sure it won’t be any trouble for you. I’ll bring wine.

  The notion Rob was trying to get her drunk was more comical than anything. She was sure no ulterior motive existed behind his offer. He wasn’t like that. Grinning, Alaina typed, Wine is good, but I’ll only have one glass. I have class tomorrow, and trust me, you do NOT want to deal with kindergarteners through a hangover.

  Alaina shuddered. Dealing with them when she had a cold was bad enough. A hangover would be hell.

  Rob: I can imagine. Is six okay? If not, send me a text. I’m gonna catch a quick nap. Later, baby.

  A nap sounded glorious. Her sleep schedule, despite getting so much Friday night, got more off-kilter every time she spent the night with Rob. Alaina looked at the pile of mail she needed to go through and the stack of bills to be paid, trying to determine if the guilt from not taking care of them would outweigh the benefits of a nap. She compromised and slept on the couch for an hour. When Alaina woke later, her stomach was already growling from the delicious smells emanating from the Crock-pot as it did its job.

  Speaking of jobs…from the six-inch stack of mail on her kitchen table to the various other things strewn throughout her apartment, it was obvious she hadn’t given housekeeping much thought lately. Wow, this place needs a clean-up.

  She was carrying the recyclables to the dumpster when Rob pulled up in his giant truck. Parallel parking that thing must be a bitch. He got out and said, “Hey. I’d help, but doing that stuff one-handed isn’t exactly easy.”

  “That’s all right. I can handle these.”

  They walked back to her apartment together then shed their coats. Rob asked, “Do you want to open the wine now or wait for dinner?”

  “I really need to limit my drinking to one glass, and if I start now…”

  He shrugged. “No biggie. I’ll throw the bottle in the fridge. The chicken smells great.”

  “Should be done in another hour or so. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Not like I’ve got some exciting plans for the night lined up after here. I’m yours, honey.” He paused then said, “Speaking of that, I believe you owe me something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A kiss, of course. Do I have to keep reminding you? It’s starting to wear on my ego.”

  Alaina laughed. “Yes, I can see. So insecure you are. Let me wash my hands and you’ll get one.”

  Rob stowed the wine and grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge while she took care of cleaning her hands. They met in the middle of her small galley kitchen and he dropped the bottles on the counter before crooking his finger. “Give your man some sugar.”

  “Sugar? Oh, Lord…”

  Rob encircled her waist with his thick arm, and when he leaned in to kiss her, Alaina wound her arms around his neck, still being careful of his injured shoulder. Rob dove into the kiss with gusto and her body melded with his like two puzzle pieces fitting together.

  He broke away and asked, “How long did you say dinner was gonna take?”

  “An hour.”

  “Let’s go. I need you.”

  “You always say that,” she teased.

  From in front of her, he said, “That’s because I always need you.”

  She helped Rob undress before removing her clothes. After Alaina had climbed on top, Rob pulled her breast to his mouth, using flicking motions of his tongue on her nipple to drive her crazy. He was already fully aroused, but wasn’t hurrying.

  “Feels good.”

  “Mmm, yeah,” he agreed, letting that breast go and capturing the other. Lying down more fully, she took hold of him, and he let out a strangled cry. “Better not. It’ll be all over if you do. I’ve been thinking about this all day.”

  “All day, huh? Is that why you asked to see me?”

  She’d meant it as a joke, but Rob dropped his head to the pillow and asked, his expression serious, “You don’t think I only want you for sex, do you?”

  Caressing his face, she said, “No, honey. I wasn’t being serious.”

  “Good, because this is way more than that. I don’t know exactly how to define us, but just sex? No way. I do want your bodacious bod all the time though.” He smiled, and she ran her fingertip along his bottom lip.

 
“I know that. I feel the same way. We don’t need to define anything right now.”

  “And time’s going by. Dinner will be ready soon.”

  Alaina chuckled. “Hard to overdo something in a Crock-pot.”

  “Good. Then I don’t need to rush.”

  A while later, after they’d thoroughly explored each other’s bodies and Alaina couldn’t help the “cat that ate the canary” expression she knew was on her face, she said, “Well I’m pretty hungry now. How about you?”

  “I could use some protein.” He waggled his eyebrows.

  She rolled her eyes and said, “Let’s eat.”

  While she dished up plates, he opened the wine, and then they sat. As Alaina watched Rob eat, she was struck by how difficult he’d have found it to even do simple things like eat had he dislocated his right shoulder rather than his left. Rob was right-handed, so at least he could easily hold a fork, write, and do other common tasks.

  “Why are you staring at me? Do I have something in my teeth?”

  “No, I was thinking it was better for you that you hurt your left shoulder, since you’re right-handed. I couldn’t even imagine trying to do things like write with my left hand.”

  “If a silver lining exists in this crap, that’s probably it.” He shoveled in a few more bites then asked, “So what’s new at school?”

  Smiling, Alaina said, “I got all this old wallpaper from a place that was going out of business. I’ve had the pile for a while, but it got pushed into the back of my closet and I found it a week or two ago. I looked up crafts you can make, and so today, the kids cut up the wallpaper and glued the pieces to card stock to make holiday cards for their families. The wallpaper obviously isn’t holiday-themed, but the students thought the cards looked pretty fancy.”

  “That’s awesome. I can’t believe how creative you guys are. If I was a teacher, the poor kids would be stuck coloring all the time or something.”

  “Not true,” she argued. “Who picked out about two-thirds of the art supplies when we went shopping? You could be plenty creative if you had to be.”

  “If you say so.”

  Rob left shortly after that and Alaina got ready for bed. She had a busy couple of weeks ahead of her. This was always a crazy time, between shopping, doing extra activities with her students, and all the other things associated with the holidays. By the time Christmas break began she was usually ready to collapse.

  As she fell asleep, a thought occurred to her. Rob was her boyfriend. That meant exchanging presents.

  Crap. What the hell do you get a man who needs nothing tangible?

  Something intangible.

  ~ * ~

  FOURTEEN

  Rob was far more excited than he probably should’ve been about the prospect of getting back on the ice. His arm was finally out of the sling, but by no means ready for action. At least balancing was easier. He needed someone else to put his skates on, though, since he couldn’t yank the laces tight with his bum shoulder. Rob had been doing up his own skates for twenty-five years and hated asking for help now. If the alternative was not being able to skate, though, he’d do anything.

  The team doctor had limited him to five easy laps the first day, telling him he could add a lap a day if he felt well enough, but not to press the issue. Rob had been through some of this crap when he’d hurt the shoulder last season and while rehabbing other small injuries, so he knew the drill. Though it was tempting to add a few more laps or push harder, experience had taught him that never worked out to his advantage.

  Clad in track pants and a fleece, Rob stepped onto the ice and inhaled deeply. God, he loved the smell of the ice. He’d missed the little things like that. A lot of people would look at him like he had a screw loose if he told them ice had a smell, but it did. Clean, unpolluted.

  As he warmed up his legs before officially starting his five allotted laps, Rob thought about Sarah learning how to skate last year and the conversation the two of them had in the hospital after she’d taken a nasty fall. At the time, Rob had been warning Sarah away from Sebastian, and before he’d known it, he’d spilled the beans about Christa.

  Lost in thought, he coasted to a stop. Removing the baseball hat from his head, he scratched at his hair absentmindedly. Usually when the memories of Christa flitted into his head, so did the pain. In time the ache had lessened, but it had never gone away.

  Until now.

  It was such a revelation he wanted to skate around the rink doing a fist-pump like he’d scored the biggest goal of his career. His heart didn’t hurt. Not at all. Rob was over her.

  “Wow,” he said to himself. “I’m over her. Completely over her.”

  When he became aware he was standing in the middle of the rink talking to himself, he grinned. No one was around, and even if they were, that shocking realization was worth somebody making fun of him. Rob had a sudden urge to call Alaina, but she was still in class, and besides, what would he say?

  Oh, hey, wanted to let you know I’m finally over my ex, who I never mentioned because I didn’t want you to think I was a pathetic fool. How’s your day?

  Rob scoffed. Yeah, maybe not.

  But he knew one person he wanted to call—Sarah. He was aware that both Sebastian and Sarah had been worried about him since the two of them had decided to shack up together. After all, he was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. Rob had seen the looks, had heard the concern in their voices when he spoke to them. They were probably immensely relieved he was seeing someone. People in love always wanted everybody else to be in love, and even though he’d resisted until now, he welcomed the emotion.

  The time had come for him to fall in love, and his gut told him Alaina would be easy to love. She might even be The One.

  Sebastian was planning to propose to Sarah on New Year’s Eve, and even though, when the topic had come up months ago, Rob promised his best friend he’d go ring shopping with him, he had dreaded the process. In the end, Sebastian had designed his own ring, but the hours upon hours of looking at stones and settings had freaked out Rob. But Rob wasn’t feeling that same jitteriness now, though he was nowhere close to ready for anything like proposing.

  How quickly things change.

  After finishing his five laps, he asked Colby to help with his skates. He hadn’t even worked up a sweat, so he had no need for a shower, but Rob found he wanted to make contact with Sarah as soon as possible. Then another thought hit him. She was probably at the arena. Because of the hours they spent poring over video and statistics, Sarah and Doug were often still working when the team itself was finished for the day. He decided to head over to her office.

  On the way, he passed the large room the team used for meetings and found Sarah alone, hunched over a sheet full of diagrams and numbers. Afraid he was going to scare her, he tried to make some noise rather than speaking or walking in.

  She looked up. “Rob. Hi. What’s up?”

  “I skated for the first time. Five whole laps at the speed of a midget player.”

  Sarah smiled. “Hey, you’re skating. Congrats. Did you ditch the sling?”

  “Yeah. They said I could use it if my arm hurt or I wanted to protect it for some reason, but I need to start getting range of motion back, and that wasn’t happening with it on.” He glanced behind him to the empty hallway then said, “So, um, are you expecting Doug back soon?”

  “Not for a bit. He had to go pick up his daughter. Sounds like something nasty is going through her class. Why? Do you need to talk to him?”

  He entered the room and eased into the chair across from her. “Actually, no. I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”

  “Okay.” She gave him her full attention, putting her pencil down and eyeing him steadily.

  “I got what I guess you’d call a newsflash today. Inside my own head.”

  She nodded slowly. “Care to share?”

  “Yeah. I thought you could identify. I was skating around and thinking about you learning to skate and that fall
you took, and then how we had that discussion at the hospital and I told you about Christa.”

  Sarah gave a half-smile. “Not one of my fondest memories, but yes, go on.”

  “And then I realized the pain that I usually felt when I thought about Christa was gone. For the first time, nothing weighed me down. Not even now when talking to you about her. Before I wouldn’t even mention her unless I felt like I had to.”

  “That’s great!”

  “Yeah. I’m pretty relieved.” He rose. “Anyway, I thought I’d tell you.”

  Her smile faded. “Sit down, Rob.”

  He plopped into the chair again, surprised by her tone. “What?”

  “You can’t drop a bombshell like that then wave good-bye. What do you think this means? Are you that serious about Alaina?”

  Rob grinned. “And this would be why I tried to get out of here.”

  “No such luck.” Sarah didn’t look the least bit remorseful, and he rolled his eyes to himself.

  Sometimes he felt like Sarah was some CIA-trained interrogator. When she got going there was no chance of escape. Rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, Rob said, “I don’t know. I don’t feel casual about her, but am I ready for something more, something permanent? I’m not sure. I think so, but this is all so new I haven’t really processed anything. I mean, I’ve thought about the possibility of falling in love with Alaina—God knows that wouldn’t be hard since she’s such a sweet girl—but before it was…more of an abstract concept, for lack of a better term.”

  Leaning forward, Sarah asked, “And now it’s more concrete? Seems more possible?”

  “You’re like a dog with a bone, you know that?”

  “Oh, come on. If you really didn’t want to talk about this, you wouldn’t have sought me out.”

  She had a point. “Okay, yes, probably, on some level. But you and I are a lot alike in some ways.”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, Sarah smirked. “Really? Do tell.”

  “Neither one of us falls in love quickly or easily.”