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when she finally slept, but she’d woken feeling restless and out of sorts.
    What she needed was some good hard physical labor. Today she was going to work herself so long and so hard, she’d be lucky if she remembered to take her clothes off before she crawled into bed. If her body ached tonight, it would be due to the hard work, not because she desperately wanted the touch of a guy she barely knew.
    With a plan in place to prevent a repeat performance of the restless insomnia, Gretchen got out of bed and stretched. Then she quickly, and not very neatly, made her bed before grabbing her clothes for the day. Sharing a bathroom was more of a nuisance than she’d anticipated, but at least she wasn’t sharing the bathroom with Alex, too.
    She opened her door and stepped out into the hallway, where she almost ran into Alex. Instinctively, she clutched her bundle of clothes to her chest, hoping to hide the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. “Uh . . . hi.”
    “Good morning.” His voice was still husky from sleep, and Gretchen tried—and failed—not to imagine him saying her name in just that tone. “Ida asked me to come and see if you were up.”
    Mortification made her want to step back into her room and slam the door in his face. “You can’t be serious.”
    “She said you never sleep past six and she’s worried you might be sick.”
    Or she might just be exhausted from staying up half the night fantasizing about the man standing in front of her. “I’m not sick. You can tell her I’ll be down in a few minutes, if you don’t mind.”
    He gave her an odd look. “Why would I mind?”
    “She shouldn’t be asking you to do stuff for her.”
    “About that.” He leaned against the wall, folding his arms, and Gretchen sighed. Having a discussion in the hallway before clothes and coffee wasn’t improving her morning any. “I really appreciate that you’re trying to set boundaries since I’m paying rent to be here. Maybe some people would be put off by some of Ida’s questions or being sent to drag a sleepyhead down to breakfast, but I truly don’t mind. I like her and I feel pretty at home with her.”
    Gretchen guessed the underlying implication there was that if she’d just relax, he could feel at home with her, too. There were distances to be maintained, though, so she simply gave him a sharp nod. “Wonderful. Since you’re so comfortable with her, I guess you can tell her if she gets too nosy.”
    He looked slightly amused, though she couldn’t imagine what she’d said that was funny. Unless he was trying not to laugh at her hair. Or the cows on her flannel sleep pants, which had been a gift from Kelly at least half a decade ago.
    “Yeah,” he said, standing up straight again. “I’m going to go drink my coffee now, and maybe yours, too, if you take too long.”
    She almost laughed, but managed to give him a stern look instead. “I’ve got a lot of acreage and a backhoe attachment for my tractor. You don’t want to touch my coffee.”
    He turned and walked back toward the stairs, but she could hear him chuckling as she closed the bathroom door. And fifteen minutes later, when she’d given Cocoa some love and then walked into the kitchen, he just smiled and poured coffee into her favorite mug before setting it at her place at the table.
    “Thank you,” she said, pulling out her chair and sitting down.
    “Please tell me she doesn’t cook like this every morning,” he said from across the table, which was covered with a mountain of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and fruit.
    “A body needs fuel to get through the day,” Gretchen said.
    She could still remember the first time her grandfather said those words to her. It had been her first morning with her grandparents, and she’d been confused by the bounty of food on the table and asked for the sugary cereal she usually ate dry out of a plastic baggie. Gram had started fussing over her, but Gramps had simply pointed at the food and