Defending Hearts by Shannon Stacey

Author:Shannon Stacey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-10-27T04:00:00+00:00

11

Gretchen woke slowly to the sun streaming over her face and did something she almost never did—she rolled over, pulled the light blanket over her head and closed her eyes again.

Today, she didn’t care about the chickens or the horses or those stupid pumpkins. She wanted to stay in bed and savor the feeling of contentment and slightly sore muscles. Maybe she’d take a long, hot bath. Then she’d spend the rest of the day in her cow pajama pants, curled up on the couch with a book.

Or with Alex.

She wasn’t sure where he’d gone, but she was surprised he’d awakened before her. Not that he was lazy in the mornings, but she was an up-before-the-dawn kind of girl by nature. And she also hoped wherever he’d gone involved the kitchen and the coffeemaker.

Coffee. She was willing to get out of bed for coffee. And since she was up, she may as well go out and gather any eggs the chickens saw fit to gift them. While she was out there, she may as well take care of the horses.

So much for spending the day in her robe, she thought with a disgusted sigh. After a quick shower to help kick her into gear, she got dressed and went in search of Alex. When she was halfway down the stairs, she caught the scent of coffee, but she didn’t smell breakfast.

“Good morning,” he said when she walked into the kitchen.

He was leaning against the counter, sipping from a mug. Shirtless and barefoot, he was only wearing unbuttoned jeans, and Gretchen had to admit Alex Murphy wasn’t a bad sight to wake up to.

Especially when he reached over and picked up another coffee mug, which he held out to her. She took a long sip and then smiled at him. “Good morning.”

“I was thinking,” he said. “After you take care of whatever you need to outside, we should go to O’Rourke’s and have breakfast.”

“We have breakfast stuff.” While Gram would know better than she did what was in the fridge and the pantry, they always had food. “Don’t we?”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be nice to relax and let somebody else do all the work? We can take our time and have coffee refills and then stick somebody else with the dirty dishes.”

That did sound nice. Really nice. It wasn’t quite a flannel robe all day, but it would still feel a little decadent and lazy. “I like that idea.”

“Good.” He gave her a look that practically sizzled over the rim of his mug. “I like having you to myself.”

She rushed through her morning chores as quickly as possible, which made her laugh. She’d gone from wanting to skip chores to doing them like they were an Olympic event just because Alex wanted to take her out to breakfast. And the promise of unlimited coffee refills didn’t hurt, either.

O’Rourke’s was busier than she’d expected, though, and she belatedly realized it was Saturday morning. Living her entire life around the farm, there were

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