Read Underneath It All (Storm Series) for Free Online Page A

up and added a cheap CD player to the list.
    Already , she’d spent her money, theoretically, but she kept looking in case she found anything better. Plus she supposed she’d be getting more tomorrow that she’d have to spend.
    She giggled. Yeah, had to spend.
    Oh man! A set of brightly-painted wood cubbies for the kids to put their stuff in rather than the ratty dollar-store bins set out on the floor they were using now; that would be an unbelievable addition to the classroom by itself. Alaina’s elation deflated when she saw the price tag—nearly three hundred dollars, and the item was part of the website’s so-called “Value Line” of furniture.
    Value line, my ass. Alaina put it on the list and found herself hoping Rob was bringing a very large check the next day. Stabs of guilt ate at her. He’d already done so much.
    A teacher’s cabinet. Alaina practically swooned when she saw a couple of them on the site. But this money wasn’t for her, but for the kids, so she moved on. A rug with the alphabet and numbers zero through nine, plus a small square for each kid to sit in for something like story time caught her eye, but she couldn’t justify another expensive item. She groaned, a headache forming as she realized she hadn’t even gotten through about two-thirds of the website. Or begun to look for books. Or toys. Both were so important!
    She glanced at the clock. Just after four in the afternoon. Too early for a glass of wine, but she could really use one. Shopping was far more nerve-racking than Alaina would have thought, considering she actually had funds, unlike other years. So many things were needed, and she couldn’t make heads or tails out of what was most important.
    Finally she left off for the day and made dinner. A few hours later, she fell into bed exhausted, after yet more agonizing and not coming to any decisions.
     
    The next day, Rob arrived as the last couple of kids were being loaded on the bus at the end of the school day. He’d texted to ask if he could be later than he’d originally thought, and she’d readily agreed, saying she’d stick around and work on lesson plans. She didn’t have a lot of other places to be. Who was she to dictate a schedule to a man who was acting as a guardian angel for her children?
    Before school began , Alaina had spoken to Claudette and the other teachers, who were all excited about an influx of cash for their rooms. She thought about warning them that spending the money was harder than it looked, but didn’t want to spoil anyone’s fun, so she kept her mouth shut. Maybe her fellow teachers wouldn’t experience so much difficulty. After all, several were veterans of teaching, unlike her couple of years’ worth of experience. She’d hate to look like an idiot for being so wishy-washy if everyone else knew exactly what they wanted to buy with their money.
    Spying Rob, Alaina put a hand over her suddenly racing heart. This was ridiculous. She could not act like a schoolgirl every time she saw the man. Hopefully he wouldn’t notice anything different.
    “Hey,” he said, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans as he looked around at the chaos of teachers and students all scrambling for the door.
    “Hi. Come on back to the classroom. We can talk while I clean up.” As soon as her kids had gone for the day she’d opened her laptop, chewing on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich absently as she then did more searching. Before she knew it, the sounds of the day wrapping up reached her ears and she hadn’t done a thing to straighten the room or prepare for the next day, much less put together even a single lesson plan.
    “I’ll help.”
    Well, that was a surprise. “Okay, sure.”
    Alaina gave him the task of cleaning up the bits of construction p aper all over the tables and floor from the art project the class had completed that day. They’d been learning about bugs, so she’d helped the kids make their own ladybugs out of red and