Underneath It All (Storm Series) (24 page)

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

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

While s
he 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 though
t 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.

~ * ~

FOUR
TEEN

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 kn
ew 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.

S
he 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.”

She nodded. “True enough.”

“I don’t have the, er, traumati
c events in my past that you do, and considering how impulsive I can be about some things—”

“A huge shopping spree
in a certain teacher supply store springs to mind, yes.”

He sent her a mock glare. “Anyway, considering I can be impulsive at times,
I still find it hard to really open up to people. You and Seb know me better than anybody else, and I value that more than you know. I want that with Alaina. I think, in some ways, I already have what I’ve been seeking without even knowing, but since I met you and Seb, both of you guys have been there for me no matter what.”

Sarah sniffled.

“Oh man, you’re not gonna cry, are you? Sebastian will kill me if I make you cry.”

“Good tears, I promise. I always figured you were best friends with Sebastian, and I
was just part of the deal.”

Rob did roll his eyes
then. “Yeah, before you guys got together I
totally
hated you. It’s not like I went out in the bitter cold and cut down a freaking tree for you or anything.”

“Point taken. But still, that means a ton to me, Rob. Thank you.”

“Before you really turn on the waterworks and freak me the hell out, I’m gonna go.” Emotional scenes like this gave him the heebie-jeebies.

“All right. I’ll let you off the hook for now. Are you going to talk to Sebastian or would you mind if I did?”

“You can tell him. He’ll understand, but not the way you do.”

“Thank you for confiding in me.”

He smiled and said, “Later,” as he rose and escaped toward the door.

On the way home, an idea
popped into his brain. The foundation was pretty much set up, thanks to the large amount of money he’d put out to get the lawyer’s undivided attention. He wouldn’t be back on the ice playing for probably another eight weeks, if things continued to go the way they were. Why couldn’t he organize a fundraiser of some sort before then? Rob had originally been targeting next summer, but he’d never been much for waiting.

As soon as he got into his house
, he grabbed his laptop then began to search out what other similar foundations were doing. He soon became discouraged since everything he found was a huge deal that took months of planning.
Why aren’t any of these events small? Or easy?

Leaning back in his recliner, he tried to think of what he wanted to do. From
that point, he could figure out how to accomplish his goal. Many of these charities gave out backpacks loaded with supplies. Some partnered with other places like grocery stores to have a drop-off point where citizens could give whatever they wanted, and others did fundraising events then used the money to buy what they needed.

Rob liked the second idea better. He didn’t like leaving so much to chance by having people donate supplies. What if they got a ton of pens and no crayons? Construction paper, but not the lined composition notebooks they needed? Nope, having cash to buy stuff themselves sounded way better.

So how to get cash quickly without a lot of fuss? He had no clue. Who would? Two names popped into mind. Sarah’s, since she was the smartest person he knew, and Karen. Pulling his cell out of the pocket of his jeans, he dialed Sarah.

Sebastian picked up. “Rob?”

“Hey, bud, is Sarah home?”

“Are you trying to steal my girlfriend away? You talk to her more than I do.”

“Eww, dude, she’s like my sister.” If Rob thought his best friend was serious, he would’ve been concerned. “Are you gonna harass me some more, or can I talk to her?”

“She’s knitting.”

Rob’s mouth dropped open. Had he heard right? “She’s what?”

“Knitting. She got some crazy idea that she wanted to make a sweater for Marc and Susie’s baby.”
A brief pause ensued with conversation he couldn’t make out. Then Sebastian said, “Ouch! Those things are sharp.”

“Put me on speaker, Sebastian.”

The phone beeped and Sarah came on the line. “Sorry about that. Someone is finding it incredibly funny watching me learn how to knit.”

“It
is
pretty funny,” Sebastian interjected.

Sarah sighed. “What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to ask for some advice.”

“More love stuff?”

“No,” he answered quickly. He could just see what would happen if he did that. Considering the way he’d teased Sebastian last year, Rob would never live it down.

“Shoot.”

“Well, I had an idea—”

“Trouble already.”

“Ha-ha,” he deadpanned. “Funny lady.”

“Okay, okay
. Go on.”

“I want to do something before I start playing again. Something for the foundation.”

“So soon? All right. What do you want to do?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t know. I don’t
want this fundraiser to be something that’s gonna take a ton of time to coordinate. I figure I have eight to ten weeks before I’m able to get back into the lineup. I’ve done research on similar organizations, and they do different types of fundraisers, but the basic thing is—I don’t want people to donate specific things. I want them to give money.”

“Can I ask why?”