Now Bass felt like he'd been hit with a ton of bricks. Of course, he had figured there was a complicated history between Miles and Rachel...but he would never have guessed that it was of this magnitude.
Charlie is Miles' daughter...the thought kept running through his mind repeatedly and suddenly he felt sick to his stomach. For as long as he could remember, Miles was like a brother to him, at one point he had been the only family Bass had left and the one who talked him off the ledge in his darkest days.
'So how do I repay him? I sleep with the daughter he doesn't realize that he has,' Bass thought grimly. He felt as though he had betrayed the one person in his life that he ever felt that he could truly count on...
Bass had agreed to keep this quiet and let Rachel tell them on her own terms. That alone would be a feat - if Charlie or Miles ever found out that he knew first, the implications could be disastrous. Perhaps what was worse, was the thought of trying to act normal after this revelation.
He actually wished Rachel hadn't told him - he would rather not know...I really should have left when I said that I was going to, he thought again but immediately retracted. He couldn't regret what was happening with Charlie, but now he didn't know if he could continue this way, with the confirmation that Charlie was Miles' daughter. Yes, in some way, it had seemed a bit 'forbidden' when he thought she was Miles' niece...but this had taken it to a whole new level.
This realization struck him so hard, it made him nauseous.
He had retreated to lay on his cot in the spare room, with a towel against his jaw. He could hear the front door open and close and two sets of footsteps entering the house. One set started going up the stairs and the other pair came down the hallway. He could only pray that Miles wasn't coming to hit him in the jaw again. He really wasn't up for that.
He saw Charlie peek around the corner of the doorway. "Hey," she said quietly.
Bass made no move to sit up, only lying on his back and mumbling 'Hey' with the pack against his jaw.
Charlie walked into the room to sit down on the edge of the bed. "I'm sorry he hit you."
"Ahh, it's nothing that hasn't happened before," Bass replied with a smirk. "...just a different reason this time."
"Yeah...I'm the reason," Charlie said solemnly. She really didn't want to complicate things between them when it seemed that Miles and Bass were finally coming to common ground in what used to be a friendship.
"Listen, it's really not a big deal...Miles and I fight, we always have...it's what we do, it'll blow over," Bass replied, acting a little distant.
Charlie nodded, aware that Bass was avoiding meeting her gaze. After a moment, she reached out to run her hand over his forehead.
He tried to be nonchalant in turning over to face the wall, breaking contact, "I think I'm going to rest here for a bit."
Charlie pulled her hand back quickly and nodded silently. She wasn't sure what was going through his mind at this moment.
Was he angry that they had been caught? Did he regret saying that he was in love with her? Did he just say that to get to Miles?
Charlie's head swirled with questions she wished that she could ask...but seeing Bass' back as he faced away from her and toward the wall showed that he was in mood to talk at the moment.
Charlie turned on her heel and left the room without another word.