“Yeah, but it came from somewhere, Solo.” I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. “You’ve had bad days in the air before and never lost your shit quite so spectacularly. So, I need more than that. I need you totrustme more than that if you want this”—I stopped short of saying “relationship,” because I had no idea how he viewed us at this stage—“whatever this is to continue.”
Solo stared at me as though I was speaking in another language. But then he took one of my hands in his and wrapped his fingers around mine.
In the last couple of days I’d realized two very important things about Mateo “Solo” Morgan: he had the power to make my world feel complete and the power to make it fall apart, and that scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
“This,” Solo said, as he brought my hand up and placed it over his heart. “Youmean everything to me. Everything, Panther. So much so that the thought of losing you has made me lose my brain these last couple of days.”
I sat there staring into his deep brown eyes, and as his words played on a loop in my head, I kept getting caught up on one thing in particular. “Why would you ever think you were going to lose me?” Solo lowered his eyes, but I wasn’t about to let him shut down, not now that we were finally getting somewhere. I raised my hand and cradled his cheek in my palm. “Tell me.”
25Solo
I’D KNOWN THIS conversation was coming—and had been dreading it. It was ninety-nine percent of the reason I’d been a total shit this week. But I knew there was no way out of this. Panther needed to know about the conversation I’d had with his father, and I wasn’t quite sure how he was going to react.
If it was anything like me, it wouldn’t be positively.
“Solo?”
I took in a deep breath and entwined my fingers in his.
“Do you remember that morning I ran out to the grocery store? The morning of the pool party?”
The pained look on his face told me he did. “It’s kind of hard to forget. You left my room with a smile on your face and came back looking like someone had run over your favorite pet.”
“Not someone, your dad.”
Panther narrowed his eyes. “Okay, back up a second. Whataboutmy dad?”
Well, here goes nothing.
“That morning, I ran into him at the store.” I let my words sink in, and when it was clear Panther wasn’t about to say anything, I continued. “I’m not sure if you remember what I was there buying, buuut it wasn’t just beer.”
“I remember.” Panther’s voice was calm, low, and a little bit…tense.
“Yeah. Uh, well, he said a few things to me that—”
“That what?” Panther demanded, drawing his hand away from mine.
I wanted to reach for it again, but the vibe rolling off him right now didn’t exactly scream,Comfort me.It screamed,Hurry up and finish the fucking story.
“What did he say to you, Solo?”
I licked at my lips, wondering how much to divulge, but in the end decided to go with the CliffsNotes.
“Nothing I didn’t already know.” I leaned back against the handrail on the merry-go-round and slipped my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t do something stupid like try to reach for him again.
“Such as?”
“Such as, he’s not happy about this…us.He doesn’t think I’m a good choice for you, and I’m certainly not the one he would’ve picked out.”
I looked over my shoulder. Anywhere but at a silent Panther. I couldn’t seem to get a read on him, but when he shot to his feet and started to pace, I knew the smartest course of action was to wait.
Wait and let what I’d said process.
“He told you that?” Panther finally said. “He told you that he’s not happy about us?”
His icy tone sent a chill up my spine, and so did the tic in his jaw. Panther was pissed. When I nodded, he cursed.
“What else did myfathersay to you that morning?”
