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The next day, Saturday, Charlie came back to her parent's house to spend the day with Miles, and by extension, Bass. An arrangement that Bass had been looking forward to, thinking he would get a minute alone with her to clear up the mess he had made the night before, and have another chance to ask her out, properly this time.

What he hadn't been counting on was not getting that opportunity. All day it seemed she was making sure that they were never alone. Whenever he walked into the room, she either made a hasty exit or latched onto someone else in conversation so she didn't have to talk to him.

That was alright though, he was willing to wait because, unknowingly, she was giving him a chance to get to know her better; and as the day wore on he was finding that he liked her more and more.

…

Charlie had been looking forward to the day spent with her uncle, but was worried about Bass. He was a nice guy, a genuinely good person, and she knew that if given the chance he would want to either apologize for her family interfering in her personal life or, God forbid, ask her to hang out again in some kind of heroic attempt to save her from a life of boredom. The former would leave her wishing for an early and unexpected sudden death, the latter of which would force her to let him off the hook again while trying to not spontaneously combust with embarrassment at the fact that her father had spread around her lack of social life.

So she had done the only thing she could do. She made sure that Bass never had the chance to speak her alone. But she noticed that that did not stop him from hanging around and taking part in all her conversations.

Danny was here for the day as well and had brought his girlfriend with him. And Nora, an old friend of both Miles and Bass, as well as an old on again off again flame of Miles, lived close by and was here also.

Growing up Charlie had always felt as if she could confide in Nora when Maggie left her feeling like a dumb kid, and she had always cherished that friendship, so when Bass decided to hang around, Charlie made sure that Danny or Nora one was always around so that she didn't run the risk of making a fool out of herself as she always feared where he was concerned.

…

Bass had overheard Charlie telling Nora that her date was going to meet her here, and he knew that his time was almost up. It was now or never, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the kitchen before she had a chance to, once again, get away from him.

"I need to talk to you." He said at her raised brows, her silent question as to what he was doing.

Charlie nodded as he let go. She sighed as she watched him rub a hand over the back of his neck as he gathered his words.

"Look, about last night." He said, but she held up a hand, stopping him.

Charlie shook her head and smiled. "It's really ok, I understand, you were just trying to be nice." She said as she took a small step back towards the door. "Thank you for that but don't worry about it, really, it's ok, we're good." She said with another nod of her head.

Bass frowned slightly and shook his head once. "No that's not…" he started to say, but didn't get the chance to finished, because Danny stuck his head into the room.

"Charlie, Shawn's here." He said.

Charlie smiled at her brother and thanked God for the timing. "Thanks, I'll be right there." She said before turning back to Bass. "Thanks again, but I better be going." She said before hurrying out of the room, leaving Bass standing there, once again wondering what in the hell had just happened.

He followed after her and got to the front hall just in time to see her give Miles a kiss on the cheek before walking out the front door with a handsome young man that was obviously named Shawn.

Miles looked over to him and raised his brows in question, but Bass only shook his head and shrugged, before turning to watch Charlie make her way down the front walk with the other man.

Miles watched his friend watch Charlie and wondered, if maybe, Bass was a little more into her than he had let on.

"Hey." Miles said as he shut the front door and drew Bass' attention.

Bass looked at him. "Yeah?"

Miles held out his hands in a "what happened" gesture.

Bass shrugged one shoulder. "I didn't really get a chance to say much of anything. She said thanks for the offer last night, but that she was good and not to worry about it and then the guy show up." He glanced out the small window beside the door and watched the car pull away. "Never got the chance to clear things up."

Miles was silent for a moment before looking around to make sure they were alone and asking, "You really do like her don't you?"

Bass looked at his brother, surprised, and nodded. "Yeah I do." He said. "Is that weird?" he asked with a chuckle.

Miles smirked. "A little bit yeah, but not a bad thing." He said. "I have a question for you though." He said and waited until Bass was really listening. "She's got a life here, a career doing something she really loves and is good at. You have six months left in the Marines, after that, what do you have to offer her?"

Bass shook his head. "Absolutely nothing." He said and then spread his arms out slightly. "Except for me." He said with a smile.

Miles smirked again and nodded. "Since you're being honest…" he said. "I was talking to Nora, getting a little info on this guy." He said, turning serious again. "This is their first date, she met him through one of her kids at school and it's not serious yet." Miles said.

Bass nodded, taking everything he said in. "Alright, so what do you suggest that I do?" he asked, genuinely wanting Miles' advice on the matter.

Miles shrugged and his smirk widened. "I also happen to know where they're going to have dinner at."

…

Charlie smiled as Shawn pulled her chair out for her and then sat down across from her.

"I'm really glad that we finally got to do this." He said as he smiled at her.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah me too." She said, telling her mind to stop wondering to a certain curly haired blue eyed blond she had left at home.

They each placed their orders and had just gotten a glass of wine when he showed up. That blue eye distraction she had thought she left behind.

Charlie had just taken a drink from her glass when she glanced up and saw him walking up to their table. She choked on it a little and in a very lady like fashion, spit it back into the glass. Shawn raised his brows at her. "Are you alright?" he asked and Charlie nodded before turning her head to Bass, who now stood beside their table.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Shawn frowned at him, wondering who he was and why Charlie seemed so flustered to see him.

Bass smiled at them both and grabbed a chair from a nearby empty table and pulled it over and sat down. "Hi." He said as he held out his hand to Shawn. "Bass Monroe." He said as Shawn shook his hand.

"Shawn Evans." He said, still very much confused. He turned back to Charlie and smiled a little uncertainly. "What's going on?" he asked her.

Charlie smiled nervously and shrugged. "I'm not sure." She said before turning back to Bass. "What are you doing here? And how did you know where I was?" she asked.

Bass looked at Shawn. "This will only take a minute." He said turning back to Charlie. "Miles told me." He said. "Look Charlie, last night, I didn't ask you as a favor to anyone, I asked you because I want to spend time with you."

His words caused Charlies eyes to widen in surprise while Shawn frowned. He didn't like the sound of this conversation, never mind the fact that this guy was interrupting their date to have it.

"Really? Why?" Charlie asked. "You don't even know me."

Bass nodded. "Yeah I know, but from the moment you opened the front door yesterday, all I've wanted to do is get to know you more, to find out everything about you." He said.

Charlie was shocked, she didn't know what to say, she had no words, which is something that only seemed to happen around this one man.

"Charlie?" Shawn said, trying to get her attention.

She glanced at him and saw the confused look on his face as he tried to understand just what was happening.

"Charlie." Bass said, drawing her attention back to him.

She looked back and forth between them and couldn't believe that this was actually happening to her, and she can't believe what she's about to do. In fact, she feels incredibly bad about what she's about to do.

"I'm really sorry." She said. "But I don't think this is going to work out."

Shawn watched her stand up and grab her purse from the back on her chair before heading for the door. He turned to Bass when she was out of sight.

"What was that?" he asked the older man.

Bass shrugged. "I think that was us both getting turned down."

Shawn shook his head. "No not that, I mean you, showing up here. What the hell man?" he asked as the waiter came with their food.

Bass waited for the waiter to leave before he stood up and fished his wallet out of his pants pocket and pulled out a couple of bills.

"This was me going after what I wanted." He said and then smirked. "And this is me not giving up." He tossed the bills onto the table. "Listen, I'm really sorry I screwed this up for you, believe me I am, but if there's one thing I know, it's that a woman like Charlotte Matheson is not the kind of woman you just walk away from." He said. "Or in this case, let her walk away from you." He said and then headed for the door, going after Charlie, and leaving Shawn sitting at the table, all alone and still kind of confused.

Shawn looked around and realized that they had attracted an audience. He smiled nervously at a couple of people, before standing up and grabbing his jacket off the back of the chair and leaving the restaurant, ready to put this whole failed evening behind him.

Shawn walked outside and hesitated when he saw Bass heading towards Charlie, who stood on the corner, looking at the phone she held in her hand. Shawn figured that the man wouldn't hurt her, but he was still leery about leaving her alone with him, until he saw the look on Charlie's face, and realized that alone with Bass Monroe was exactly where she wanted to be.

He chuckled quietly to himself and turned to head towards his car, figuring that this night couldn't really get any weirder.

…

"Charlie." Bass said getting her attention from the phone in her hand. "Can we talk please?" he asked as he stood in front of her.

Charlie looked up from her phone and nodded, not taking her eyes from him. "Yeah." She said, they could talk.

There will be one more chapter for this, and I will try to have it up by the weekend, but I make no promises. I've been spending as much time as I can here lately with my family because a large chunk of them will be moving away in a little over a week and I don't know when I will get to see them again...so I not going to give a firm date for the next update, but just know that I will try... :)

Again, thank you all for reading...and remember...

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