Underneath It All (Storm Series) (3 page)

“I thought
that dish might interest you.”

He
smiled. Since she and Seb had moved in together, Sarah had adopted Rob as her pet project. Not that he was complaining about all the home-cooked food, but it felt a little strange to have people wanting to take care of him after he’d been independent of his family for nearly ten years already.

Sarah continued,
“I need some guinea pigs with strong stomachs for this first attempt.”

“Hey Seb, is our life insurance
from the Storm paid up?” Rob asked. “Do they do that before the season starts?”

“
I hope so. Ow! What was that for?”

“You can sleep on the couch, you know.”

“You’re the one who said we’d need a strong stomach, not me.”

Before he had to listen to yet another nauseating lover’s spat,
Rob said, “I’m in. I’ll bring some Sangiovese. Bracciole needs a strong wine.”

“Listen to the wine snob,” Sebastian said.

“When it’s about Italian wine going with Italian food, damn right. Later.” He clicked off the Bluetooth on his steering wheel. Rob wasn’t keen on a lot of fancy bells and whistles in his vehicles, though he did like the chrome detailing on the body of his Escalade XLT, but even he admitted the built-in Bluetooth was pretty sweet.

As
he drove to his place, Rob thought back to the classroom and what Sarah and Sebastian had said, trying to reconcile everything in his head. In the end, knowing he’d only make himself nuts, he decided not to dwell.
Better to let the matter rest for now.

A couple of days later, though, with his apartment quiet and no travel as training camp droned on, the situation still bugged him. He finally gave in to the niggling in the back of his brain and called Sebastian’s mom to quiz her. After that, he spent over three hours online, looking at websites about education funding before veering into classroom supply information. No way could he keep going to that school all year and doing nothing for those kids when he had the means to help.

~ * ~

TWO

A
s she looked over her lesson plan for the day, Alaina sighed. The kids were scheduled to arrive any minute, and though they had loved having Rob read to them, she wasn’t looking forward to seeing him again. He irritated her on the most basic of levels. She couldn’t quite put her finger on how he’d wormed his way into her thoughts so often, but the man had definitely gotten to her.

She was still brooding when the principal, Claudette
Johns, stepped into the doorway. A younger guy was with her, and he smiled at Alaina. His teeth were almost blindingly white.

“I wanted to introduce you to Kyle
Cross, our newest student teacher. He’s assigned to the upper grades, but I wanted the two of you to at least meet.” Claudette turned to the student teacher. “Kyle, this is Alaina Rossa. She teaches our part-time kindergarten program, which is a five-days-a-week, half-day program.”

Kyle s
trode forward and shook Alaina’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alaina.”

She frowned at his use of her first name. Usually student teachers called the other st
aff by their last names. Was it because she “only” taught kindergarten? She’d run across that a few times and wouldn’t be surprised.

“Nice to meet you too,
Mr. Cross
.” Alaina emphasized the last name, but Kyle didn’t appear to notice. Kyle smiled at her again.
Wow, are those some freaking white teeth.
Had he bleached his teeth in preparation for this gig?

“I’m being hailed,” Claudette said. “I’ll leave you two to talk.”

Wonderful.

A
fter saying goodbye to Claudette, Kyle turned back to Alaina then leaned in and said in a stage whisper, “I hear you got stuck with some jock reading to your class. Or are they reading to him?”

Alaina raised an eyebrow at his sudden fierceness.
“Yes, it’s an early intervention reading program.”

“They really should get to them before they’re professional athletes.
” Kyle smirked. “But hey, look at it this way. You probably won’t have to put up with him for long. He’ll probably flake on you.”

Alaina’s eyes narrowed. “That’s possible, but he seemed to like the kids.” As if summoned, a couple of them stumbled into the room. “I need to get to work. Thanks for coming by.”
Her students kept her busy after that and she didn’t give Kyle’s words much more thought other than to hope he was wrong. Alaina hated disappointing her little charges.

The morning passed quickly, and Rob arrived promptly at eleven. “Thanks for being on time. We have a busy day.”

Why am I like this? He’s volunteering his time.

He raised one dark, thick eyebrow, and before she could get any bitchier, she handed him a Dr. Seuss book from her personal collection—like most of the books currently occupying the classroom—then retreated to where she’d stationed herself before. Last time, the purpose had been so the children would pay attention to Rob and not to her, but Alaina had quickly discovered the position was also an excellent vantage point to check him out as he read the book.

He wasn’t overly tall, which as a hockey player she’d expected him to be,
but he certainly wasn’t thin. And not an ounce of fat on the man that she could discern. No, he was all muscle. His dark brown hair was cut into one of those styles that was longer in the front and spiked, and his face, though far from perfect, somehow managed to magnetize her attention. The man’s eyes practically oozed sex, even when the topic was surely the farthest thing from his mind.

She could discern
no way a pair of jeans purchased in a store would fit those tree-trunk thighs, and unwittingly, her gaze rose to the bulge above them before skittering away. Alaina’s cheeks burned, but hopefully Rob was too busy to notice her embarrassment and wonder what caused it. His jersey hid the fact the Polo shirt he’d been clad in upon arrival stretched tight over his barrel chest and biceps.

As he spoke, she followed the movement of his lips.
I wonder exactly what those lips can do.
Shaking her head, she berated herself.
Focus.
He is not here to be your weekly man candy fix.
Alaina smirked. Though he certainly did the job admirably.

Rob
was using sound effects and different voices as he read, and the kids were eating up his antics, especially the little “Canadianisms” he threw in every now and then. Alaina was woman enough to admit her surprise that a big-time professional athlete was willing to look silly to bring a smile to a little face. The realization pleased her enormously, which further annoyed her.

When he was finished, h
e answered a few questions, always giving the students a good reply, but keeping on topic and refraining from making any inflammatory statements. Apparently he’d taken her warning last time to heart.

You’re running out of reasons to dislike this guy, chica.

As the time neared for the kids to get on the bus, she ended the session and led Rob out. Once in the hallway, he shifted from foot to foot, clearing his throat and not meeting her gaze, but also not saying his good-byes and skedaddling. Sensing that was unusual behavior for him, her eyebrows drew down. Was he already sick of the kids and ready to “flake out on her” as Kyle had assumed?

Finally he spoke, his gaze focused somewhere over her
head and his shoulders belaying tension. “What time are you finished here?”

She was so surprised by the question she blurted out,
“I work half days, just in the morning, so I could be free in about an hour. Why?” What had him this nervous?

“Let me give you my cell number. I’d like to talk to you about something.”

Hmmm. Yeah, probably flaking out.
“Uh, okay. I’ll go get a pen.”

She
retrieved a piece of scrap paper and a pen then handed both to Rob. He put the paper against the wall and scrawled a number, but even though curiosity was killing her, Alaina didn’t have time to quiz him. She needed to get everybody ready to leave.

“Call me when you’re done and I’ll come back.”

Come back?
She’d figured he’d been talking about a phone call. “Sure.”

What
could possibly be on his mind? If he was planning to quit, he wouldn’t want to return to the school and talk face-to-face. That would be the hardest way to tell her, after all. So what was going on?

By the time she was able to call Rob, Alaina’s mind had run through about a million possibilities, from him quitting to asking her out. That last one had led her to bang her forehead on the desk to rid it of the ridiculous notion. Alaina didn’t want him to ask her out—or at least she didn’t
want
to want him to ask her out. But after watching him today…

She frowned.
Rob’s world was stratospheres from hers. What could they possibly have in common? And why would he want some schlubby teacher anyway? Guys like him dated supermodel types, though she wasn’t sure how many of those girls resided in the Buffalo area.

Of course, he traveled all over
the country for games, and she’d succumbed to a bit of research on her smartphone, which told her he’d played in Canada and in international tournaments the world over. Maybe he’d met some gorgeous girl elsewhere and was spending every spare minute in bed with the woman. If he dropped the program because he couldn’t stand to be away from some chick, Alaina would be pretty pissed.

She
propped her elbows on her desk and put her head in her hands, pulling at her hair. Why was she even wondering about his sex life?
Maybe because mine is nonexistent and I’m living vicariously.

What Alaina didn’t expect when Rob met her in the now-empty classroom was for him to reach into the pocket of his jeans and pull out a check. “I wanted to give this to you.”

Just like earlier,
he wouldn’t meet her gaze, and so she gave up to look down at the check. Her name was in the “To” field, and her eyes widened. “Five thousand dollars?” The words were much louder than she’d intended, and when she went on, she lowered her voice. Until she knew what was going on, this was not a time to call attention to them. “Why in God’s name are you giving me a check for five thousand dollars?”

“For supplies and stuff for your classroom.” Rob glanced around, his gaze sweeping the entire room before
finally
resting on her. “I don’t understand any reason your students shouldn’t have the same opportunities as other kids just because of where they live.”

“Opportunities?” She couldn’t wrap her brain around what he was talking about. The words “five thousand dollars” had been running on a loop
inside her head ever since she’d noticed the amount, and it was hard to concentrate on anything else.

“Yeah. They should have toys, art supplies, books.
” He shrugged, his cheeks coloring. “Whatever they need. Just because this is an inner-city school doesn’t mean these kids are any less deserving of an enriching educational experience.”

He spoke
as if he hadn’t made this decision on the spur of the moment, and as his words sunk in, tears sprang to her eyes. “So you’re giving me money,” she looked at the check again, noticing for the first time the slip of paper bore his name and presumably his home address, “from your own pocket, to buy things for my students?”

Alaina was aware the tone of her voice had moved beyond surprise and barreled right toward incredulous, but everything she thought she’d known about
professional athletes and, in particular, this man, was being blown out of the water. If he’d really done this, just handing over his own money, and from what she could see, of his own volition, as the Storm didn’t appear to be involved, Rob was an entirely different person than she’d pegged him to be. A thread of guilt wound around her brain. Obviously she’d judged him prematurely, and now she felt like a bitch.

“Yes
. Your students shouldn’t suffer because of their circumstances. And if the amount is not enough, tell me and I’ll give you more.”

“Not enough?” Her voice cracked on the last word. “Rob, this is…this is
amazing
. Truly.”

He shrugged
again, rubbing the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable with the praise.

After r
ising, she skirted her desk to stand in front of him. “Do you understand how much good this will do?”

Now Rob
smiled, and Alaina noticed laugh lines around his eyes. Maybe she’d been right that he didn’t take life all that seriously, but this gesture showed another side to him—one she would have a hard time behaving professionally around. When she’d thought he was a playboy-athlete like so many others, it had been easy to dismiss him. But now…

A
s the enormity of what he’d done fully hit her, a tear escaped to roll down her cheek. Never before had someone seen the injustice her students endured and done something so quickly and yet with so little fanfare. He’d just handed over the check like it was no big deal.
Unbelievable.

Before she could process what was happening,
Rob wiped at the wetness with the pad of his thumb. When their gazes collided, Rob’s swift intake of breath startled her. He pulled his hand away as if he’d been burned before turning and pacing away.

What the hell is that all about?
No way does a guy like him think I’m hot.

Half
turning back toward her, he said, “Anyway, I don’t want to keep you, but I couldn’t just hand over the check after my reading thing and run.”

“Okay.” Alaina approached him
then reached a tentative hand to the shoulder nearest her. He was about a head taller than her, and when her hand met his flesh it was like touching granite. Rob was built like a tank, which she supposed was an advantage in the rough and tumble sport of hockey. She couldn’t help but feel safe in his presence.

“I don’t even have the words to express my appreciation.
‘Thank you’ is so inadequate.” Another tear escaped, and she quickly swiped at it. She’d probably freak Rob out if she turned into a waterworks right now.

He sighed and darted a glance at her out of the corner of his eye.
“Don’t thank me. I don’t want your thanks. I only did what anyone else would do.”

She knew that wasn’t true, but remained silen
t.

“
And please don’t make a big deal out of the whole thing. I don’t want some reporter tracking me down thinking the check was a publicity stunt.”

“Whatever you want.” She squeeze
d his shoulder briefly before letting go.

Rob peeked at her one more time
then started for the door like he was rushing from a burning building. “See you next week.”

“See you.” S
he returned to her desk and fell into the chair to stare at the check. This had to rank as one of the strangest days of her life. Alaina certainly wasn’t used to people recognizing the need for funds and actually coming through for her.