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“Lieutenant Morgan.” The first man in line wasn’t someone I’d met before, but I’d heard enough about him to know who he was instantly.
“Captain Perry,” I said, shaking his hand.
“I’ve heard quite a bit about you, young man.”
He may have meant that as an admonishment, but I grinned broadly. “And it’s all probably true, sir.”
His bushy eyebrow rose, but his smirk made me think that this was a man who didn’t seem to mind someone shaking things up a little—thank fuck.
It was nice not to be met first thing with someone who had a pole shoved up his—
“And you must be Lieutenant Hughes. The base has been buzzing about you since you decided we needed to upgrade one of our planes.”
Yep, this Captain Perry was definitely not a stuffed shirt. Not like— “Good evening, Commander Levy.”
“Lieutenant Morgan,” Levy said with a clipped nod, as his eyes ping-ponged between me and my…date.
I straightened my shoulders and schooled my features. I mean, what was the worst he could do? Throw us out? Okay, then we’d head back to our barracks together. I didn’t really see a downside to that.
But it seemed Commander Levy was smarter than that. He wasn’t about to embarrass himself by drawing even more attention to his students. Instead, he let out a sigh, probably wondering when the hell he’d be rid of me so his life could go back to normal.
Just a little longer, Levy. Just a little longer.
“Nice to see you made it on time. I thought for a minute there I’d have to send out a search party.”
I could hear Panther making small talk with Captain Perry beside me, and as he finished up I decided what the hell, and reached for his hand again, pulling him by my side.
“Was just waiting for my…partner,” I said with a broad grin, letting Levy take that any way he wanted. When Panther squeezed the ever-loving shit out of my hand, I realized that maybe I’d overplayed the whole throw-caution-to-the-wind thing.
Eh, Panther knew who I was when he signed up for this gig.
“Lieutenant Hughes.”
“Commander Levy.”
The exchange was made with such formality and such finality that I knew that would be the end of that, and it didn’t take a genius to know why. I could feel the ice-cold stare-down from the man standing to Levy’s right, but as I moved in his direction, I thought, Well, at least I have my pants on this time.
Bracing myself for what was sure to be an epic dressing-down on a public scale, I tightened my hold on Panther’s hand and waited for whatever Captain Hughes had to say. His eyes lowered to our hands and then roamed back up to my face. Just as I was about to let go of Panther’s hand so I could shake his father’s, Captain Hughes said, “You’re late, Lieutenant Hughes.”
Oh, shit. Not only had he completely ignored me, he was looking at Panther like he wanted to take him outside and ream him a new one. That look was fucking terrifying, and I didn’t easily scare.
Neither, apparently, did Panther.
“I was waiting for my date.”
My head whipped around so fast that I was surprised I didn’t snap my neck. I wasn’t sure why I was so shocked. Panther had told me he wanted to do this. But somewhere in the back of my head, I’d been waiting for him to change his mind. I’d been waiting for him to, what…disappoint me?
Seemed I’d be waiting a lot longer if that was the case.
“Solo, I know you two have met before, but I’d like to formally introduce you to my father. Captain Hughes, this is Lieutenant Morgan.”
My jaw joined everyone else’s in nearly hitting the floor. Panther flashed that crooked smile my way, and I couldn’t help but wonder where the nervous guy from outside had gone, because the man now standing beside me seemed one hundred percent confident in what he was doing. And fuck me, that was hot.
“Son,” Captain Hughes said, and then cleared his throat. “I think we should maybe—”
“Dad. This is Solo. He’s important to me.”
Captain’s Hughes jaw twitched as he turned his eyes my way. He swallowed and held his hand out to me, and Panther let go of my hand so I could shake it.
“Good evening, Lieutenant Morgan.”
His handshake was firm, and no one was more surprised than me when he didn’t try to break it.
“Good evening, captain.”
He swallowed—probably all the words he really wanted to say—and said, “You two have done very well in the Elite program so far. I hope you have a nice evening.”
“Thanks, uh, we’ll definitely try.”
He nodded and released my hand, and, not being stupid, I took that as my cue to keep on going. Panther stopped in front of his father and they exchanged quiet words.
It wasn’t until Panther sidled up beside me at the end of the receiving line and slipped his hand into mine that I realized we’d managed to weather this storm together and come out the other side intact…for now.
