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the grand metal staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms.
    His silence made her nervous. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to say something.
    “This is about a hundred times the size of my place.” He regarded her with a crooked smile she couldn’t read. “Kinda like living in a church, although not like any church I ever attended.”
    Our house looks like a church?
    “I assume you live on base?” she asked.
    “No ma’am. I have a motor home I keep parked at the Silverdale Beach.”
    “Wow.” A homeless Navy SEAL?
    “Exactly. Got the whole ocean as my back yard.”
    “Sounds—different.”
    “It’s all I need.”
    “Okay. Well, what’s this about? Your visit, I mean.”
    “I’m here to pay my respects to his family. Will Brownlee’s family. Was there anyone else special in his life? Like, was he married, or did he have a girl?”
    Libby blinked twice. They had never discussed whether Uncle Will had had a sweetheart. “We are his family. I just never knew him.” She realized she was being short. “My grandparents are both gone, and my father was his only brother, so perhaps he would know. My dad worshiped him.” Libby started tracing the grout line of the marble floor with her toe. “Look, I’m going to need some answers here. You have to kind of spell it out for me. We don’t speak military in this house.”
    “I can tell.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “You don’t speak military, and I didn’t bring an interpreter.”
    “I think you should speak to my father.”
    “That would be good.”
    “Except he isn’t here. Maybe another time?”
    She caught him eyeing the front of her cotton shirt, like he could see right through without unbuttoning it. With an involuntary jerk, he was focused on her eyes again. It was very odd that she didn’t feel afraid of him, like she had every other man lately. Her heartbeat elevated and her breathing became shallow.
    “When will he be here?” His voice sent a tingle down her spine.
    “He gets home about four-thirty. But I wouldn’t waste your time unless you can tell me what you want.” She started for the door and he followed behind her. At the front, she stopped, and turned around. “I’m waiting.” She tapped her foot to an invisible drummer.
    The giant nodded, but faced his own shoes as he responded to her command, “I’ve been asked to do a little research on S.O. Brownlee. It’s an order.”
    “And why would the Navy want to contact my family? What purpose would it serve?”
    “It’s just what we do. I was given his name when I got my Trident. I’m supposed to know about him. I’m a SEAL as well.”
    “After all these years? Why now? Why not let the dead remain dead? Why bother my father?” Libby’s annoyance began to flare as she felt the need to protect her father.
    The sailor shrugged, looked up at the ceiling, adjusting his stance. With a sigh, he turned his gaze back on Libby. She felt herself melt under the press of his intense study.
    Cooper took a deep breath, and continued, “Because, I’ve just lost mine.”
     

Chapter 5
     
     
    Cooper hadn’t been so summarily dusted off since he’d asked Her Highness Homecoming Queen Sherry Baxter to go with him to the prom. She’d laughed in his face, and his buddies on the basketball team wouldn’t stop taunting him either.  He’d spend most of his senior year trying to forget the incident.
    It felt like that now. No family, no home. He was walking around like a stranger in his own clothes. Ordered to meet with people who could care less about him or the military. In less than six hours since returning from Nebraska, everything had changed.
    He was faced with the stone-cold eyes of the Doc’s daughter, eyes the old Coop would normally have been only too happy to warm up. She was strong, and he usually enjoyed the challenge of being with a woman with a backbone. He wanted to introduce her to the intense fire that lived inside him until she