Several days had passed with Bass and Charlie successfully avoiding one another.
This only served to further alarm Miles and Rachel.
Something was definitely going on here.
Charlie couldn't deny her attraction to Bass. After months of hating him and wanting to exact revenge, she had learned of his past and that he had a deeper soul than she could ever have imagined. Through that connection, a physical attraction had emerged. An attraction that was reciprocated...only Bass was still in complete denial about its existence. He had acted on it, only to retract the behavior and again reject the notion of anything happening between them.
Was it complicated? Of course - very complicated...but from what she could tell in her limited experience with relationships was that most of them were...just look at whatever complicated history that appeared to exist between her mom and Miles.
That evening, Rachel had prepared supper for all of them and they gathered in the dining room. Charlie sat between Miles and Aaron and barely spoke. Rachel discussed strategy on their next move and Bass barely looked up from his plate. After dinner, Bass and Miles went for a walk along the bank.
"Listen, I don't know what the hell is happening or if I even want to know...but Charlie...she's not a notch on your bedpost," Miles said in a warning tone.
"Miles...you know that I would never see Charlotte that way, ever," Bass replied.
"Good...let's keep it that way," Miles said.
That night, after everyone was asleep in the house, Bass laid on the cot in a spare room, not able to sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her face, her body lying beneath his in the shed during their training session.
Hell, he felt like a teenage boy again.
Down the hallway, Charlie lie awake in her bed, wrestling with her thoughts. She hadn't been sleeping well lately and she was blaming Monroe. She had gone back to thinking of him as 'Monroe.' 'Bass' seemed too personal and she was trying to detach herself mentally and emotionally. It was a matter of self preservation.
He had basically rejected her and she had to come to terms with that fact. Despite whatever chemistry they seemed to have, nothing was going to happen between them. Charlie closed her eyes, willing herself to accept this, move on, and find some peace.
A moment later, when she opened her eyes, she found Bass standing in the doorway of her bedroom.