Read One Week (HaleStorm) for Free Online Page A

them, things flowed easily. Professionally. Safely.
    “Okay, this is some of the more involved stuff for you to keep in mind for later. They want you to show proper management of your firewall, for example.” She glanced at Michael. “That’s sort of subjective. I presume they just want proof that it’s being regularly maintained. Maybe if we could take a screen capture of the settings....”
    He handed over a sheet of paper. “A screen shot of our firewall’s rule set, taken the day they came to root around in all of our business.” Another sheet of paper. “Another more recent screen shot to show the adjustments made since.” He smiled. “Next?”
    The soft, dark fur of his arm brushed her skin as he pulled away. Elise took the stomach flutters as a sign she’d had enough muffins. “Next. Next....” She tapped her lip and scanned her sheet for the next blank space. “Server configuration?”
    With exaggerated flourish, another sheet of paper appeared in front of her.
    “O-kay.”  She narrowed her eyes at him. “External building security specs?”
    More paper. “Booyah.”
    “Mr. Hale, I don’t think the company president is allowed to say ‘booyah’.”
    Big grin. “Sure I can. You thought that documentation was going to be a pain to produce and here I had it all printed off and ready to go for you first thing this morning. So I repeat. Booyah.”
    She bit her lips together to keep from smiling. “You’ll also need to provide an up-to-date security clearance for all employees supporting this project once it goes live.”
    Three more stacks of paper found their way into her hands.
    Elise couldn’t keep her mouth closed.
    Michael chuckled. “I studied your checklist as soon as you gave it to me,” he said. “Sent out a few requests.”
    “Thank you.” The way he’d gone above and beyond to help warmed her. Sure, this was his company and ultimately whatever helped her, helped him. He still hadn’t needed to go out of his way like this.
    “Of course.” His grin widened. “Now. It seems like we’re moving along really well. Tell me what’s next.”
    His BlackBerry buzzed.
    “Do you need to get that?”
    He shook his head as he tapped a reply. “Sales issue. Hopefully they can handle it without me. So. Next?”
    She returned his smile, and indicated all the papers he’d given her. “Actually, I don’t suppose you have a paperclip? I’d like to corral all these dead trees you just handed me before my piles get out of order.”
    He held one up. A purple one. “Yes. Heaven forbid we disturb your neatly-organized piles.”
    “Where—” Her phone buzzed. Awfully early to be hearing from her mother. Worry danced on the back of her neck. “I’m sorry. It’s my mom. Do you mind if I step into the hall and let her know I’ll call her later?”
    “By all means.”
    When Elise returned, she placed her phone on the table in front of her next to a small mound of purple paper clips. She paused, her pulse quickening as she picked up and put down one at a time. “Where did these come from?”
    “Turned out I had an assorted box of color ones in my desk drawer. Long conference call yesterday about computer based training.” He shrugged. “The things you do when you’re bored.”
    She laughed, even as her gut tightened around those things he’d done that she hadn’t forgiven. Holding on got harder with every passing hour, with every chocolate chip muffin and every purple paper clip. “I hate to even imagine.”
    “Yeah, you think that’s bad? We’ve got satellite offices on the west coast and the project manger over there is what you might call a slow talker.” He mock winced as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. His feet tapped hers, hitting Elise with a startled jolt. “One of these days I’m going to stretch out on the floor and go right to sleep.”
    “You would not.”
    “I might.”
    They both smiled and for a moment that weird thing happened where their