A tour bus drives them to Denver—an overnight trip that takes them through some wonderful countryside. Tessa spends the first few hours admiring it and sending pictures from her phone to Jackie and her father whenever she has coverage. Scott and Kaden had both demanded more pics of the bus than they had of the countryside.

In their defense, it is a pretty awesome bus. It’s the size of a small apartment, with a kitchen and living area in the front, a master bedroom in the back, and a row of four bunks in between the two. There’s also a shower that none of the band was particularly interested in trying out. After Tessa had pried a little, Slate had spoken cryptically of buses swerving, sudden stops, and ‘the Unsolicited Penetration Incident,’ and Tommy had shivered like he’d had a bad dream.

Since it was over twenty hours to Denver, they were going to have to sleep eventually. The master bedroom had a bed big enough for a few, and the women had claimed it. The men having to take the bunks.

Tommy and Sersha have a seat near the front. Tommy, for once, is not scratching away at a notebook. He’s nibbling on his thumbnail and reading The Handmaid’s Tale while Sersha gazes out of the window with her iPod blasting into her ears. Their fingers are loosely entwined.

Slate sits behind them with his knees on the back of Tommy’s seat, playing some Nintendo DS game. He’s gotten so riled up that his elbows and shoulders move with violently every few seconds, jolting Tommy’s seat and bothering Harper so much that she’s had to move away. Retreating to one of the bunks to read a manual on muscle development with her legs in a lotus pose that Tessa couldn’t manage if she had a million years to perfect it.

Dash is in the master bedroom with Logan, probably because it’s the furthest he can get from Tessa without actually leaving the bus. She can hear the explosions from the movie they’re watching from where she sits next to the driver.

“Loud bunch, aren’t they?” he says, leaning over to talk to her with his low Texas twang. He’s an older man with a Rangers baseball cap turned backward. He’s taken a liking to Tessa, and he’s allowed her to sit and bother him instead of sitting with the rest of the band.

No matter what she does, she can’t shake the feeling that she’s an outsider to them. She thinks that it wouldn’t be like that if Dash were still talking to her. If he were trying to pull her into the conversations and forcing her to drop her professional demeanor to make her laugh. The other band members will still talk to her and laugh, of course, and the women give her long looks full of sympathy whenever they see Dash push her away. But apart from Logan, no one has really tried to reach out. Tessa wonders if they’ve been waiting for something, or if they didn’t want to give the impression of taking a side that isn’t Dash’s.

“Pretty loud,” Tessa replies. “But they’re lovely people.”

“I had to drive Kanye West’s bus a few years ago,” the bus driver recalls. “Seemed a little full of himself. A lot of them are.”

His voice is just low enough that no one beyond Tessa—perched as she is on the step between the driver’s cabin and the rest of the bus—can hear him. She can see Mikayla out of the corner of her eye leaning against the kitchen sink and tapping her tablet as usual.

“These ones are decent,” Tessa says. “Good people, every one.”

“I’ll take your word for it, darlin’,” he says. “At least there’s no entourage with these ones.”

Tessa nods. The entourage is coming in another bus behind them. Even the bodyguards are riding with the roadies and Tessa’s happy about that. She hasn’t really had the chance to talk to Jared since he asked her out. She knows that if they’d had the opportunity to talk, Dash would probably figure out that they were planning to go on a date. She can only imagine the way he would react to that.

Her phone pings and she glances down. It’s a text from Jared. She wonders if he knew she’d been thinking about him.

 

Jared: How’s things?

 

He texts with proper punctuation. That’s something she’s not used to. She licks her lips and texts back quickly

 

Tessa: Not much. I’ve made friends with the driver.

Jared: Really? Is he hotter than me?

Tessa: Much hotter. He’s got the sexiest liver spots I’ve ever seen.

Jared: Well, there’s no competing with that!

 

Tessa grins. It’s the sort of joke that she thinks Dash might make, though the moment the thought crosses her mind she’s kicking herself because she shouldn’t be thinking of him. She shouldn’t be comparing other men to him. It’s not fair. Not to the men and certainly not to her.

She hears footsteps coming up behind her and turns her head to see Mikayla standing over her, with a tired smile on her beautiful face.

“Hey Tess,” she says. “How are you doing over here?”

“Fine,” Tessa replies.

“And Robbie… you’re okay? Don’t want any coffee?”

“No thanks, Mrs. Todd. I had plenty when we left Temple.”

Mikayla looks happy when the driver calls her ‘Mrs. Todd.’ She’s still in the flush of her newly wedded bliss. Tessa knows that she and Logan never did get to have a real honeymoon.

To Tessa’s surprise, Mikayla slides into the space next to her and sits on the step. Tessa takes a moment to wonder whether it’s good for her skirt to sit on the ground where people have been walking.

“Fine, huh?” Mikayla says. She gives Tessa a knowing look. Tessa’s eyes flicker over to the driver and Mikayla seems to get the message. She takes out her tablet and taps out a message.

Mikayla hands her the tablet.

You’re not feeling left out, are you?

Tessa reads the words and chews her tongue, before quickly typing her reply into the notes app.

I’m here to do a job, not make friends.

Mikayla sighs and takes the tablet back. It takes her a little while to type out her message. It’s almost as if she’s writing a novel. Tessa watches the road pass through the window, waiting for Mikayla to finish her note. Finally, Mikayla taps Tessa on the shoulder and hands her the tablet.

When I came to the band, they were all single and happy to play with someone new. Now that they’ve all got someone they’re not as excited about new company. But I promise you, they all love you. I think they would love it if you would reach out. For something besides an interview.

Tessa chews her nail again and types her answer almost without thinking about it.

I get that. It’s a bit hard when interviewing is all I’m here for. You’re paying me a ridiculous amount of money, so I feel like any time I’m not working is time I’m stealing from you.

Mikayla clicks her tongue and gives her a knowing look.

Maybe when you’re done getting your material?

Yeah, perhaps.

Behind them, Tommy finally loses his patience and turns around to smack Slate over the head with his book.

“Stop fucking kicking my seat!”

“Ouch, asshole… what even…” Slate waves his DS to try and defend himself, but Tommy keeps smacking him around the head with the book.

“Feel the wrath of a feminist masterpiece, dickhead!”

As Mikayla and Tessa watch, Sersha glances at Tommy—who’s leaning over the seat with his ass in the air—and before turning back to the window and turning up her iPod to drown him out, giggling, Tessa and Mikayla turn back to the front while the driver shakes his head, muttering about loud musicians.

Mikayla types out another message.

Dash is distraught. How are you?

Tessa sighs.

Not distraught. I miss him like hell, though.

I swear those boys are the worst when it comes to relationships. It’s like they’re cursed.

Tessa tips her head back and laughs.

One of these days, I’m going to get the full story about all of the nonsense they’ve pulled.

I hope that you’ll be able to laugh about this fight with Dash someday.

The bus rocks beneath them, and Tessa feels a powerful urge to lean over and rest her head on Mikayla’s shoulder. It’s the sort of urge she’s often felt with her sisters. It’s something she might have felt with her mother if she didn’t despise the woman. Finally, Tessa gives in and lets her head fall. Mikayla doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, Mikayla reaches around so one arm is curled over Tessa’s waist, pulling her close, the way Tessa often would with her younger sisters.

“You will be fine, my love,” Mikayla whispers.

Tommy’s voice quiets down, so he must have gotten his point across. Tessa hears Slate muttering as he gets up from his seat, his heavy boots stomping down to the other end of the bus where Logan and Dash are still playing their game together.

Mikayla taps into the tablet.

For what it’s worth, I think Dash knows that he’s in the wrong here.

I don’t think there is a wrong per se. We just want different things.

He’s in the wrong because he’s not talking to you.

Tessa sighs. Then Mikayla’s hand rubs soothing circles on Tessa’s back, and she rests her head on the crown of Tessa’s own, making herself comfortable. Tessa watches as Mikayla keeps writing, putting sentences and sentences on the tablet and keeping up a steady monolog.

When I met these boys, they were dripping with women. Every night I would watch them go home with a new girl, and every girl knew where they stood and what they were doing, so it didn’t bother me. And the boys would always treat them with respect. After a while, each one of them met someone special. They could never do it without drama, but they’re happy now. Dash will be the same.

Tessa leans over to type out her answer.

Maybe not with me, though.

Or maybe he just needs to get his head out of his ass. The little fucker…

It sounds like something Logan would say. Maybe his personality has rubbed off on his wife in the months that they’ve been together.

“Have you said that to his face?” Tessa whispers trying to hold back a giggle.

“We all have, repeatedly,” Mikayla says. “Slate sat on his head for about five minutes.”

Tessa snorts. Her phone pings again, it’s probably with another message from Jared, so she ignores it. She’s not about to answer one of his flirty texts with Mikayla’s head right next to hers.

The bus keeps rocking as they leave the tablet to go dark with inactivity, letting it rest on Mikayla’s lap. Neither of them speaks. There doesn’t seem to be a need to, and Tessa has some things to mull over.

Both Mikayla and Logan had been under the impression that Dash is in the wrong here. But really, how can they think that? Dash and Tessa had both put their cards on the table, and they just wanted different things. No one was in the wrong, except for the fact that Dash seems to have taken her desire for a commitment personally. But even that isn’t really wrong. Just… it hurts Tessa to not talk to him.

She reaches into her pocket, careful not to move too much and disturb Mikayla, and pulls out her phone. The message is from Logan, not Jared. She opens it and feels Mikayla’s chin move as she reads the screen over Tessa’s shoulder.

 

Logan: You’re not upset are you? Do you need anything?

 

Tessa frowns at the screen, wondering what he means and what prompted this. But Mikayla sniffs with amusement above her.

“He can see us,” she says. “It’s a straight shot from here to the bedroom.”

Sure enough, when Tessa turns her head, she can see down the hall to the end of the bus, where the master bedroom’s door is open. She can see the bed from here. Logan is sitting on the edge, in a similar posture to the one that he’d had when she was interviewing him. Behind him, Dash and Slate are watching the movie, though when Tessa looks she sees Dash and Logan giving her and Mikayla almost identical looks of concern.

Mikayla snorts and takes Tessa’s phone out of her fingers. Then she types the answer.

 

Tessa: She’s fine. Go back to your movie.

 

While Mikayla is sending the message, Tessa gives Logan a thumbs-up. Her eyes shift to Dash, who looks away. When Logan gets the message, he gives Tessa a thumbs-up too and elbows Dash. Tessa turns away before she can see how Dash reacts.

Would he care if Tessa were upset?

He’d walked out of the hotel room, ignoring her calls for him to come back.

Mikayla hugs Tessa closer and hands her back the phone. “Typical. Maybe Dash asked him to send it?”

“Dash has my number,” Tessa says.

She stuffs her phone back into her pocket and puts her own arm around Mikayla’s shoulders because she’s tired of being the one to be comforted. Needing comfort is new to her, and in her defense, she hadn’t asked for it.

If Halley or Jackie, or any of her sisters, had come to her with boy troubles, she would tell them the same thing—no man is irreplaceable. There are four and a half billion of them on the planet. If a man wants something that you’re not willing to give—or vice versa—then there’s nothing wrong with moving on.

So why does her heart clench in her chest at the thought of Dash being worried about her? At the thought of him reaching out to her by proxy? And even if he hadn’t, even if Logan had seen his wife holding Tessa and wondered if she was all right on his own, Tessa still compares Jared to Dash without a second thought. It’s almost as if her mind has latched onto Dash as the standard by which other men should be judged. Which is ridiculous because he’s barely known her for a few months, and she’s only known his name for a few weeks. He’s gotten under her skin.

Tessa groans and sighs. Mikayla pats her back sympathetically.

“I know, honey. It’s the same with the rest of us.”

“You read minds, now?”

Mikayla gives Tessa a sly look. “Like I said, we’ve all been there.”

Tessa thinks that she’s probably right.