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their tendency to react to things at the same time. The running joke was that the two of them had gone through an experiment in the Army and their brains had been sliced in half, with each getting fifty-percent of the other’s brain. If it weren’t so wrong, he could actually believe it happened. There was no one he trusted more to have his back, to keep him sane, and to stand beside him than Rob Morrison.  
    It was the same house where he saw the woman peeking out of the window just a few minutes earlier. When Rob and Leslie turned away and began looking over the girls, laughing at their antics, Cooper continued to look at the window. Something kept his attention glued to that house and he wanted to know what, or who, it was.  
    It didn’t feel like a threat. No, Rob would not have relaxed that soon if had been a threat to their families. But for some reason he couldn’t look away just yet. He felt a soft hand on his arm and was forced to look away from the house. Looking down into the light blue eyes of his mother, he gave her a smile.  
    “Hi, Mom. Welcome to my home.”  
    “Hi, honey. I’m so glad to be here. We all are. I see Madison and Bree haven’t let go of each other since they stepped out of the cars.” Laughing, she turned to him, “Did you buy that second bed for her?”  
    Laughing out loud, he grabbed her hand and tucked her arm over his as they walked toward the middle of the front yard where the others had gathered, “As if I could get away with not getting it. Do you remember the last time these two whirlwinds spent the night? Oh no, they’re each having their own space.”  
    Although he was drawn into the conversation and felt lighter than he had in months, something kept calling for his attention. As he motioned for everyone to go into the house, the need to look over and see if he could catch a glimpse of the woman looking at him through her front window took over. He glanced over just as she ducked out of the way. “Hmmm, interesting.”  
    “What was that dear?” His mother-in-law looked over at him in curiosity.  
    “Oh nothing, just getting my bearings in the neighborhood.”  
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Listening to the sweet voice of his daughter as she and her best friend talked about everything that happened to them in the last twelve hours since they had been separated, he smiled. Walking into his new home, the start of the next chapter in his life, Cooper could appreciate that things had not turned out the way he had expected. Far from it.  
    A widower at thirty-eight was not his idea of a perfect life. Having his wife of twelve years die in a car crash six months after giving birth to their beautiful little girl had never been in the cards. It had taken him almost two years to get over the pain and hurt of losing Heather on that warm day in June.  
    He could still remember the moment he got the call from his boss and was asked to come to his office. Walking into the large corner office and seeing the two police officers waiting for him, he had no idea what to think. There would be no reason for the police to want to talk with him and he knew it, which only caused his confusion to grow. Never in a million years would he have expected their words to haunt him in his sleep for months, even years, after that meeting.  
    The officer who spoke first had a deep, raspy voice. “My name is Sergeant Isles from the Arlington County Police Department. Are you Cooper Branson, the husband of Heather Branson, of 321 Lee Boulevard?”  
    Looking toward my boss, I immediately noticed the look of sadness in his eyes before I turned back to the police and answered their questions, “What is this about?” My tone was a tad curter than the situation called for, but even in the few seconds I stood there, I knew it would be bad.  
    Just earlier that day, no more than three hours before, one of those gut feelings that something huge was about to happen had come over him. In that