He told himself to think of her as a client he was working with on a way to help her boutique hotel. And it worked for a little, but then she’d tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and now he was thinking about combing his fingers through the short, silky strands that accentuated her heart-shaped face.
His fingers paused on the keyboard, having lost his train of thought. “What’s your password?”
“Sunflower01.”
“That’s it? No special characters?”
She shook her head. “I only added the numbers because the system insisted on it.”
Concern filled him. “Do you know how easily hackers could crack such a simple password?”
She shrugged. “Who would want to break into our reservations system?”
“It’s more than reserving rooms. There’s payments and identities.”
Gia frowned. “Okay. I get it. I have to be more careful.”
Together they came up with a more elaborate password. And then she phoned Michael to inform him about the changes.
“And you need to set up a three-factor authentication,” he said.
“Now you’re being over the top with security.”
“Actually, I’m not. Hackers are good. Very good. They just haven’t found you yet, but when they do find your site, you’ll have big problems. It could ruin the hotel’s reputation.”
“Are you serious?” When he nodded, she added, “Hackers really need to get a life instead of making everyone else’s so difficult.”
They went about setting up the three-factor authentication. He could tell Gia wasn’t happy about all of the extra steps, but he assured her that in the end, she would appreciate her business being secure. She merely nodded and continued to frown. He couldn’t help but smile. The little frown lines between her brows were adorable.
And he knew the more adorable she became, the more hooked on her he became. That was dangerous. Once her biological father was located, she’d be gone. He’d once more be alone.
* * *
The evening flew by.
Gia did her best to walk Ric through her online system, but she didn’t always know what he was asking. It seemed he knew more about the program without having to work on it than she did after using it for months. But then again, computer programs were his thing, not hers.
She ordered a pizza and insisted Ric take a break to eat. She even persuaded him to join her on the couch with Gin taking his usual spot between them, waiting for a scrap of food to fall so he could scarf it up.
“You know, you don’t have to go to all of the extra trouble with my website,” Gia said, feeling guilty that he was spending time fixing her security and search engine optimization.
“I don’t mind. In fact, I enjoy this type of work.”
“Have you always been good at computers?” She’d seen another side of him while they’d been working on her website—a side that was nothing like the man in the movie or the headlines posted about him on the internet. A wickedly smart, funny and caring man—a man any woman would be foolish not to fall for.
He finished his last bite of pizza, wiped his mouth and then set aside the empty plate. “I started messing around with computers when my uncle gave me one for my eighth birthday.”
“Your uncle? Not your mother?”
He was quiet for a moment. “My mother wasn’t in my life much as a kid.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Nobody knows because I don’t talk about it.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything. Sometimes my mouth gets ahead of me.”
“It’s okay. It’d be natural to assume I’d have grown up with my mother, but she wasn’t the maternal kind most people have. I’m sure your mother baked you cookies, helped with your homework and tucked you in at night.”