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showed him her soft side. He knew she had a soft side. He could feel it already.
    But he wasn’t going to play that game today.
    This afternoon he didn’t have the patience for it. And he wanted at least another day and night to numb out. An evening of being anything but civil. In the morning, he’d teach the kid how to surf. And then he’d go face that family tomorrow evening for the meet-and-greet. If there ever was a time he should get thoroughly fucked-up-stinking-pissing-in-your-pants-drunk, it was tonight. For a few moments he thought he even missed the killing fields of Afghanistan. Or the focus he had when he worked up for a new deployment. Not this. Not this morass of feelings he just didn’t want to feel. Trying to do something decent, under orders, no less, and getting rejected. Rejected!
     He needed to get into action, push his body to peak performance like he did just before he shipped out. Unfortunately, he’d have another three months before that cycle began again.
    Too damned long.
    He’d be lousy company tonight, for sure. Even for Daisy. And she deserved much more. No, despite his lousy mood, he should find Fredo and Kyle. Maybe he was too dangerous to be alone.
    Starting to think about cleaning my Sig. He knew it was a damned mistake to handle a weapon. He was ready to explode.
    When he returned to the motor home he let Bay out. They ran down the beach together as Bay tried to keep up. Coop sprinted until his breathing hitched and the pain inside stopped. But, once he got his breath back, the hollow burn in the pit of his stomach came roaring back.
    Coop returned to his Babemobile and jumped in the shower. He slipped on a pair of pajama bottoms when he heard a soft knock at the door.
    It was Daisy. He could see she was looking for the good time he was normally only too willing to provide, and he decided he’d carefully let her down. She must have noticed something was up when he didn’t immediately take her into his arms. They sat a distance apart on his couch, facing the door.
    She gave a tussle to Bay’s wayward hair that tufted at the top of his head, something the dog was only too willing to receive.
    “Your dog needs a bath,” she said, smiling.
    He hadn’t noticed, but damn, she was right. Bay stunk up the whole motor home. Even the flowers he bought every week, stuck in a vase bracketed to the wall, didn’t cover up the dog smell that pushed everything else aside. Bay sat on the floor between them, attention focused on the ground, appearing grateful for Daisy’s attention.
    “Yeah, he was traumatized at first. Ran from a tornado, then plopped on a plane and now living at the beach. Never seen the ocean before.”
    Bay looked up at Coop with admiration, leaning against the SEAL’s leg.
    Coop couldn’t look at Daisy, but saw out of the corner of his eye that she had moved to within inches of him. He could feel the heat from her sweet-smelling chest close to his bicep as he leaned forward and began to pet Bay.
    “You okay, Coop?”
    He nodded but still didn’t look at her.
    “You sure?” She laced fingers through the hair along his temple, then dropped to the back of his neck and gave him a one-handed massage. “So sorry about your family, hon.”
    Coop removed her fingers from behind his head, placing them back in her lap. He patted them onto her thighs, and then withdrew his hand. He felt like a complete dumb shit. Being close to anyone female was painful.
    “Sorry. Guess I’m not very good company tonight.”
    “I understand. No worries, Coop.”
    She waited. She’d hung around SEALs long enough to know that if they didn’t want to talk, there would be no talking.  Then she broke the silence, and sighed. “Well, another time, then. You take care, Coop, hear?”
    Are you fucking nuts?
    “Thanks. Daisy...” He tried to look at her face, but couldn’t. “I’m going to call things off for a bit. Got some stuff to sort out, if you don’t mind.”
    “Take all the time