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I sidestep to a more neutral topic. “And your dad? Are you close with him, too?”

Whoa. Not neutral. So far from neutral.

“Nope,” she answers simply, every muscle in her back going tense.

I read the signal for what it is. She doesn’t want to talk about it.

Passing behind her, I set to cleaning and wiping down the counters. “Would you believe that I have a brother who maxes out at five sentences every time I see him?”

There. There’s a flash of amusement I was hoping for.

“So…the opposite of you,” she teases.

I lightly hip-check her. “Rude. I just cooked you a great meal, and that’s how you repay me?”

She sends me a pointed look, all the sass back in her expression. “I thought you were so rich that you didn’t need payment for food?”

I grin. “Touché.”

She finishes the dishes quickly, and as she’s drying her hands off with the towel, I’m already plotting how to keep her out here in the living room for a little longer. Originally, I had planned to spend the day working in my home office, then meeting one of the firm’s clients for dinner. Now, all I can think about is hanging out with Charli.

One glance at her tells me that’s not going to be as easy as I had hoped.

She’s already inching toward the guest suite as she says, “Um, thanks for the breakfast. I’m going to work for a few hours now, so I’ll just be—” She jerks a thumb over her shoulder.

“Damn, girl, your boss doesn’t let you take weekends off?” I joke weakly. I can’t think of a single thing to entice her with. Why the fuck isn’t my brain working right now?

Her huff of laughter is equally awkward. “Something like that. Anyway…”

When she whirls around and disappears down the hall, I wince and drag a hand down my face. You’re an idiot, Lucas.

But now that I’m left by myself, I guess I should get some work done. Begrudgingly, I pull my laptop out of my bag. I can’t bring myself to hide away in my office, though, so I drop onto my couch instead. For some background noise, I turn on the TV and scroll through my recent watches on Netflix, eventually settling on my favorite default: The Matrix.

Ten minutes later, I’m just about finished combing through the emails that came through last night when I hear, “I meant to ask, can I get— Holy shit, you wear glasses?”

I lift an eyebrow in Charli’s direction. “Should I expect you to verbalize every time I change something about my appearance?”

Her mouth, which was hanging open, snaps closed. Even from here, I can see the way her cheeks pinken. The same way they did when she first walked into the kitchen this morning.

I’d be lying if I said her reactions don’t make me want to preen under her gaze.

“But you don’t wear them at the office,” she argues weakly.

“I wear contacts at the office. Glasses just happen to be more comfortable at home.”

She lets out a quiet oh, her hands twisting in front of her. “You look…” Then she shakes her head and abandons the comment completely. “Sorry, I came out here to ask for the Wi-Fi password. I meant to get it from you earlier.”

“Of course. Hold on, I’ll email it to you.” I copy and paste the password into an email and hit Send. When I turn my focus back to Charli, I’m grinning as I ask, “You couldn’t have hacked my system to find the password?”

When she stiffens and gives me a guilty look, I burst out laughing. “Holy shit, could you really? I was just guessing. Could you seriously hack my system?” When she looks guiltier still, my jaw drops, humor replaced by shock. “Oh my God, have you already hacked my system?”

“No! Of course, I haven’t.” She winces. “That’s a lie, I totally have. But not recently! And it wasn’t really a hack, per say, I just⁠—”

I can’t stop my smirk. “You just what? What were you looking for, Charlotte?”

Another wince, but I don’t know if it’s at the name or the crime. “It was when you first offered me the job. I hacked your work stuff to see how you handle your cases. I…” Her throat moves on an audible swallow. “I wanted to see what kind of person you were.”

“And? What’s the verdict?”