Georgie on His Mind (4 page)

"His show, Until Tomorrow Begins, is running a charity
contest, `Win a Dream Day with Clay and Rae.'"

"Rae?"

"Oh, you know. Rae Roberts. She plays Clay's love interest, Jessica, on the show. Clay's character thinks Rae's character is little Miss Perfect, but unbeknownst to him, she's
hiding a secret so terrible it-"

"Yes, I remember now. I watch the show, thank you very
much. Get back to the contest information."

"Oh, sorry," Dee said, blushing. "Got carried away. Anyhow, men who enter will win a date with Rae, and the
women who enter will win a date with Clay. The money they
raise will go to a needy family in town. Clay plans on donating a large amount of his own money for the beaches and to
help fix up the downtown area"

"That's nice of him."

Dee frowned. "That's all you have to say? `That's nice of
him'? How about, `Thank you so much, Dee, for telling me
about this. You're the greatest, bestest friend in the world and
when I enter this contest, get married, and have his child,
we'll name our baby after you and buy you a brand new
Cadillac.'"

"So you think I should try to win a date with him, huh?"
she asked with a laugh. She shook her head as she folded the
newspaper back up. "I don't think so. Sounds like a hoot, but
there must be millions of women trying to enter this thing. I
mean, what are the actual odds I'd win?"

"One in six thousand-give or take a few thousand."

"Gee, with odds like that, how could I not enter?" she
smirked. "But even if I did, you're forgetting about my
brother. You know how crazy overprotective he's been lately
with all the men I've been trying to go out with. He'd actually fanned his gun at the guy I tried to date before Hank"

Dee blinked. "Fanned his gun? I don't even know what
that means. Look, Georgie," she said, taking her by the shoulders, "you said Walt Somers was going to be in town.
Brad wouldn't dare embarrass himself in front of his friend.
Besides, what could he possibly say about Clay Hayes? The
man is a complete Boy Scout. Your brother should be thrilled
you're finally trying to date someone who's more your caliber."

She raised a brow. "An actor is more my caliber?"

"Well ... maybe not, but not only is Clay Hayes hot, he's
smart. Did you know he'd actually thought about going to
medical school?"

"Wow. He did?"

Dee pursed her lips for a second. "Uh, I think so.
Anyway," she said, waving away her own doubt, "he has to
be ten times better than any of the guys around here, aside
from my Brody. You have to do this. Come on, just look at
yourself."

Georgie obeyed and looked down, but only noticed a small
jelly stain on her lab coat. She licked her fingers and tried to
rub it out.

Dee let out an exasperated sigh. "No, no. I mean, look at
yourself in general. You just said you need to expand your
dating horizons. You shouldn't be wasting your time with the
slobs in this town. You're gorgeous. Women would kill for
hair like yours. You just need to spruce up a bit with some
makeup-oh, and lose the lab coat"

Gorgeous? Her? She tentatively ran her hand through her
long reddish-blond curls. She didn't know about gorgeous,
but she supposed she looked better than average. Better than
she had in college. Better than she had in high school. Well,
at least better than she had in the womb.

"Georgie, your brother doesn't trust your judgment in relationships with the opposite sex. What does he know? You
just said Brad's not doing so hot in the dating department either. And this is a chance of a lifetime. The point is, how
do you know you won't win if you don't try? Best of all, if
you do win, your brother won't be able to do a darn thing to
muck it up without embarrassing himself."

Georgie bit her bottom lip. The crazy idea was suddenly
beginning to have some merit. What would be the harm?
Well, for one thing, she'd give Brad a heart attack. But on the
other hand, he deserved it. She should be able to do whatever
she wanted. She didn't need him making decisions for her.
She was an independent woman. Sort of. "Let me think
about it."

"Well, don't think too long. The deadline is midnight tonight." Dee handed the folded newspaper back to Georgie.
"The e-mail address is at the bottom"

Randall finally sauntered back to the pharmacy, carrying
an extra large coffee and a pink glazed donut he had to have
walked two doors down to buy. Dee and Georgie exchanged
annoyed looks.

"Nice of you to rush back for our sakes, Randall," Dee
commented, not hiding her sarcasm.

Randall, of course, was oblivious to it. "No problem," he
said with a little yawn. "Anyone waiting? I'd like to eat in
peace."

"No," Georgie rushed out before Dee told him where he
could shove his donut. "We have everything under control.
You're free to enjoy yourself at the moment"

With a grunt, Randall sat down and made himself comfortable, as though he was attending his own little personal
picnic.

Georgie went back to typing out a refill, but as soon as she
typed out two numbers, Dee grabbed her arm. "Hey, don't
look now," Dee said in a whispered tone, "but we have an
eavesdropper at eleven o'clock."

Her fingers froze over the keyboards. "What?"

"There's a guy over there who's been lingering around the
condom section, and he doesn't appear interested in buying
any. What do you think about that?"

Georgie carefully peered over her computer monitor and
saw a very tall, lean man in jeans and a blue polo shirt. Probably not a local, since he wasn't in the traditional casual garb
of shorts and flip-flops. She tilted her head to get a better
look, but he had a cell phone up to his ear, partially covering
his face. "Maybe he's casing the pharmacy, or maybe he's
already pocketed something," she said from the corner of her
mouth.

Thinking of the stolen condoms, she started to stand up
but Dee's hand on her shoulder kept her on the stool. "Take
it easy, Georgie. I didn't say I saw him steal anything. I just
thought that he was cute and maybe he was checking you
out. Yowsa, take a gander at that body," she said, practically
foaming at the mouth. "He doesn't look like a thief to me. In
fact ... he looks a little familiar."

Georgie threw her hands up in the air. "Don't you pay attention to those TV shows you watch? Smart criminals don't
try to look like criminals. They try to look like you and me.
Besides, I don't care how nice a body he has. I think I should
confront him." She cast a side glance at Randall licking frosting off his thumb. "Someone has to be the pharmacist around
here."

With a chuckle, Dee slapped her on the back. "You go,
girl. Show him who's boss"

Georgie gave her a curt nod and stepped from behind the
counter. Then tripped and stumbled.

Okay, I can do this, she thought, steadying herself. Confront the perpetrator. Let him know who's boss. She was only
weeks away from being an actual pharmacist. If she was ever going to prove she could be in charge, she'd have to
step up to the plate and show everyone how "adult" she was
now.

She slowly made her way up to the man and, taking a deep
breath, tapped him on his beefy bicep. When the man swung
around and looked at her, she thought her legs would give
out from under her-only not from fear.

Oh please, oh please, don't be a condom thief!

Dee was way, way off in her description of this guy. He
wasn't just "cute" with his surfer-spiky blond hair and tanned
skin. Anyone with a decent pair of eyes would judge a face
like his as handsome, almost beautiful-not merely cute. But
he was saved from looking like a Ken doll by a nose that was
slightly crooked and a five o'clock shadow that was already
starting to take place at eleven in the morning. In her opinion, it only made him look more approachable and definitely
not like a criminal.

She hoped.

The man flashed her a dazzling grin. "Hey there," he said
in a husky voice.

She melted under his unwavering gaze and tried to lick
her lips, but her tongue felt like a dried-up old sponge. "Uh,
hello," she answered, finally finding her voice. "I, um,
couldn't help but notice you here, uh, around the condoms"

His grin widened. "Please don't tell me you're here to
give me some pharmaceutical advice."

He leaned in closer, and the scent of his pine tree aftershave sent her heart rattling around in her chest like a lottery
Pick Six power ball. Gosh, she was pathetic. She was supposed to be taking a bite out of crime, but what she really
wanted to do was take a bite out of this man. She snapped
herself back to attention and reminded herself why she was
talking to him in the first place. Career first, love life second.

She cleared her throat and wiped the stupid grin she felt
radiating off her lips. "Urn, no. I wanted you to know I know
what you're up to," she informed him, trying for a more businesslike tone.

"Well, yeah, I guess I was pretty obvious."

So the man was a shoplifter!

She felt a trickle of disappointment at that realization.
What a waste of such a charming specimen of a man. At
least he was an honest shoplifter. Maybe there was hope for
him yet.

"Well, are you going to show me what's in your pocket?"
she asked him.

Mr. Charming-Smells Incredible-Condom Thief blinked,
then carefully looked around. "Excuse me?"

She looked around too, hoping he didn't have any accomplices lurking behind. "Look, if you cooperate, I won't call
the police."

His cell phone dropped from his hand. "C-call the police? Whoa-ho-hey, honey. If this is your idea of a pick-up
line, I think it needs some retooling."

Pick-up line? Huh. Apparently he was already trying to
make plans for the stolen condoms. The man's so-called
charm was slipping.

"I am not flirting with you," she stressed. "Didn't you hear
me? I'm only interested in what you have on you"

He bent down and picked up his phone, looking one part
confused and two parts amused. "What I have on me? You
mean like money?"

"No, I mean like condoms"

"Wait a minute," he said raising a finger. "Are you still
flirting with me?"

She heaved a frustrated sigh. "No. Now just answer the
question. Do you or do you not have condoms on you?"

He hesitated, the color in his cheeks flushing a deep pink.
"Well ...I-"

"Ah-ha!" she announced, poking him in his chest. "I knew
it. You did steal them" She thrust out her palm. "Hand them
over right now."

His already pink face suddenly turned a funny reddishpurple color. "Are you out of your mind? Look, Miss, do you
know who you're accusing?"

"I didn't accuse anyone," she shot. "You just admitted it."

"Hey, I didn't admit anything," he shot back. "Not that it's
any of your business but I don't have condoms on me" He
emptied his pockets before her, pulling out his keys and a
wallet, which seemed to contain only a few credit cards and
a couple of twenty dollar bills.

She blinked, and her heart began to pound in a frantic
rhythm that told her Nice-Smelling Condom Man had just
made a very good point. Uh-oh. The fierceness of his
assertion-not to mention not a single condom in sightbrought the reality of the situation into focus. More accurately, the significance of what she'd done into focus.

She'd just made a whopper of a boo-boo.

Stunned by her own obtuseness, she looked back at Dee,
who-from the tears of laughter running down her faceappeared to have heard and seen the whole exchange. Okay,
she may have jumped the gun on this. She'd always been a
tad on the impetuous side, a character trait she obviously
still had to work on. Worse yet, not only did she fail to catch
a thief, but she didn't think this guy would be asking her out
on a date any time soon.

Hoping to avoid a store complaint, she tried one more
time. "But you were standing here and ... well, what was I
suppose to think?"

"Think? How about what any normal person would think?" he asked, his voice rising with every syllable that followed.
"You should have thought, hmm, now there's an intelligent,
law-abiding customer minding his own business. But noooo.
Instead I'm automatically marked as a condom thief. Oooh,
someone call the cops, there's a man in the condom aisle. I
mean, so what? So I'm standing in the condom aisle!"

A man clearing his throat behind them made them both
flinch. When Georgie dared to look, her boss, Al, stood only
a few feet away with his arms crossed and an exasperated
expression plastered all over his elderly face.

Wonderful. Not only did she have to answer for the missing condoms, but wrongly accusing a customer too. She was
so fired.

Al stepped closer, but surprised her by poking the man in
the shoulder and addressing him instead. "Will you please
lower your voice and stop yelling about how you're standing
in the condom aisle, young man? Maybe that's standard
practice in the city, but we country folk just use signs to let
the customers know where the products are. And it's no way
to speak in front of a lady."

The man's jaw dropped. "But she-"

"No buts. I don't want to be at home recovering from surgery worrying about you and what kind of example you're
setting around here. Shame on you, Walt!"

Georgie's eyebrows shot up. Walt?

Uh-oh. Did she hear Al correctly? She studied NiceSmelling Condom Man's face again with the intensity of an
electron microscope, then wanted to smack herself upside
the head for not noticing the resemblance sooner. Oh, my
gosh. It was Walt Somers. Curse her poor recall ability. Hopefully, he had a bad memory too, and if she made her getaway
now, he wouldn't remember what she looked like later on. Turning on her heel, she stepped in the direction of the pharmacy department.

Al grabbed her by the arm and swung her back around.
"Not so fast, Georgie."

She cringed, and Walt dropped his cell phone again. Being the snake that he was, he'd probably make her pay for
a new one.