To be fair I’d tried to stay away from just about everyone except Carter, who was the only calming influence on the tour, over the last seven days. I did it mainly because I knew I was being mopey and moody. There was also the fact that my three baboons knew me too well, and if they put their minds to it, could figure out there was more to my attitude than simply a bad period.

So I’d told them all I was sick.

Which was why I’d been hiding in my bunk for the most part over the course of the week.

Except tonight I hadn’t been able to fall asleep. It was the first night of a two-day drive from Winnipeg to Toronto, and I had slept most of the day. I’d laid in bed reading until my eyes hurt, and by that time, the bus had gone silent, leading me to believe everyone had gone to sleep. Quiet as a ninja, I got up, snuck out of the bunk area with my backpack, pulled out the bottle of wine I’d bought that afternoon from the fridge and flipped through the satellite channels on television.

Not even half an hour into the old classic movie and Mase had gotten up.

Hating the idea of going back to bed, I headed back into the living area to find him sitting on the opposite couch I’d been on, sipping wine straight from the bottle as he watched the movie on the same super-low volume I’d left it on. When he heard me close the bathroom door, he looked over and smiled.

“Got some new panties on?”

“Ha ha,” I muttered.

Mase simply grinned as he took another drink. His eyes strayed to the screen. I sat in the same spot I’d been in and went back to watching the movie. A few minutes passed before I felt the nudge of glass against my hand. He was holding the bottle out for me to take and I did.

I’d barely taken a sip when he asked, “You finally over it?”

“I’m feeling a little better,” I answered, eyeing him, trying to be all cool and indifferent.

He gave me a flat look that immediately made me sit up straight. “Do I have STUPID written on my forehead?”

I blinked. “Is this a trick question or…?”

The jackass didn’t even hesitate in the split second between when I finished trailing off and the time it took him to reach across the walkway to pinch my butt cheek. I squealed and tried to pull away but it only made the sting worse.

“Are you over your shit with Sacha?” He finally just went right on out there and asked after letting go of my battered booty.

Umm.

What could I do? I just stared at him. If I didn’t admit or deny anything…

“Daddy Mason knows everything.” He raised his eyebrows as he sat back against the couch again. “Everything,” he enunciated.

Oh hell. “What—”

Mason stared at me with those intense blue eyes, and I stopped talking. We both knew it was pointless. Here I was thinking I was being slick by hiding and pretending I had a virus, and he’d known the truth. Which only meant the other two idiots had to know too.

That knowledge was definitely worth the sigh that came out of me as I shrugged, resigned. I scrunched up my nose, wrapping my arms around my bent knees again. “Is it that obvious?”

He shrugged back. “We figured it out the day after San Francisco.”

I winced.

“You can’t hide shit from us,” he said, confirming what I should have already known.

I sighed again. “That’s what I was afraid of, damn it.” Thinking about it for a second, something occurred to me. “Why didn’t Eli say anything?” We both knew he didn’t know how or when to shut up. Hell, everyone knew that about him.

“He doesn’t want to piss you off.”

Yeah, that made me scoff. “Since when?” He usually went out of his way to aggravate me.