Always on My Mind by Susan May Warren Read Free Book Online

tightened, but she pocketed the phone, put the key in the lock. “Casper, just . . . stay calm.”
    Stay calm ?
    She opened the door. “Raina, are you okay?”
    “In here!”
    He peered over Grace’s shoulder and guessed the sound was coming from the bathroom.
    Grace turned and handed Casper the bag of groceries. “Stay here.”
    Not on her life. He set the bag on the counter and followed her to the bathroom, not caring if Raina was in her robe   —or less.
    But nothing in his brain prepared him for the sight of her sitting on the floor in a puddle of water, her face contorted in pain.
    Pregnant.
    She looked up and met his eyes even as Grace grabbed a towel and asked, “What happened?”
    Raina looked away, holding her belly.
    Her pregnant belly. Casper just stared at her, his brain scrambling. How   —?
    “My water broke. I think the baby’s coming.”
    Grace hooked her arm around Raina’s waist, helped her to her feet. “Then we need to get you to the hospital.”
    Casper stepped back as Grace wrangled her through the door, toward the bedroom. “Casper, there’s a bag in the family room. Get it and a bunch of towels.”
    He couldn’t move. Just stared at Raina as she struggled, onehand to her back, groaning. She stopped suddenly, bracing her hand on the wall, breathing hard.
    Oh. My.
    Grace breathed with her. “You’re doing well.”
    Casper rested his own hand on the wall. Tried to breathe.
    The contraction passed, and Raina hobbled to her room.
    Pregnant.
    He stood there, hollow.
    “Casper.” Grace had returned and now stopped in front of him. She reached up and touched his cheek. “Can you help me get her to the hospital?”
    His mouth closed and he nodded. As he stared at Grace, however, the truth took root, burned through him.
    He didn’t have to do the math, didn’t have to use his sleuthing skills to figure it out.
    The woman he loved was having his brother’s baby.

    Of all the times for her wildest dreams to walk through the door, fate had her hunched over, waves of pain suffocating her, immobilizing her.
    In fact, she could barely see straight.
    Another contraction swept through Raina, and she crumpled at the end of her bed, onto her knees, breathing through it   —or trying to.
    She might be levitating from the pain.
    Then, just like that, the fist released and left her sweaty and gasping on all fours in the middle of her bedroom.
    Yeah, that was pretty. She felt like a beached whale, awkwardand cumbersome. She collapsed onto the floor on her side, willing it all to go away.
    Willing Casper to go away. She glanced through her half-closed eyes to where he stood in the hallway, starting at his tanned bare feet, fresh off the beach, and working her way up.
    Oh, he couldn’t see her like this. Not when he stood there dressed like the free-spirited renegade she’d fallen for, his body bronzed and fit, those blue eyes on her, tearing her apart. One glance at him and it all came back   —their summer romance and the fact that she’d fallen so hard it took her breath away.
    And his words through the door   —hauntingly sweet, sad, and wanting to . . . what? Whatever the reason he’d returned, seeing her had to knock it out of him.
    For her part, she’d heard his voice, and suddenly the contractions she’d ignored most of the morning roared to life.
    “Raina, c’mon, you have to get up.” Grace’s voice slid through her despair.
    “No.”
    “You can’t deliver your baby on your bedroom floor. We have to go.”
    No.
    “Raina,” Casper said softly. His voice still had the power to stir hope and a sweet, forbidden heat inside her. A low tenor, solid, capable. The man who’d made her feel   —what seemed so long ago   —cherished.
    Or at least not alone.
    She heard him kneel next to her, smelled him   —distinctly male, the saline hint of the sea on his skin. He put his hand on her arm. “Let’s go.”
    No. She couldn’t bear it   —the thought of him touching