Georgie on His Mind (9 page)

"Wait. Don't tell me," he said with a chuckle. "You want
me to take Brad out and maybe see that he meets a nice girl."

Her eyes widened. "Wow. How did you know?"

"Call me psychic."

"I suppose it's better than some of the other names I could
call you."

A wide grin spread across his face. "Well, well, now
who's acting like old times? You know, I could complain
about how you talk to me as well. Ever since I came to town,
you've been treating me as if I were still fifteen and running
over your Barbie with my dirt bike."

"You did that?"

Walt's smug expression suddenly turned guilty, and he
cleared his throat. "Uh, I can't quite remember. Hey, it might
have been Brad now that I think about it. Or some other jerk
he was friends with. Tim Clark, I think. You know, it's all a
big blur to me now."

She cracked a smile. "Sure, it is."

Despite what she knew he'd done all those years ago, his
lighthearted mood was so infectious and charming she
laughed and lightly punched him in the arm. But as soon as
she started to draw back her hand, he caught her off guard
by reaching out and taking hold of it in his own.

"Uh, listen, Georgie," he said, thoughtfully studying their
joined hands for a moment. "If I was the one who had run
over your Barbie, well, I'm sorry. Even if we weren't friends
back then, I would like us to be friends now. Not only for
Brad's sake, but for the pharmacy's sake too. I was a difficult
kid-kind of mad at the world because of my mom leaving.
But it still wasn't a very nice thing to do, especially to my
best friend's sister."

She stared at their joined hands too, trying to decide if she
liked this new side of Walt or not. The seriousness he used
combined with his deep, velvety voice had a strange effect
on her heart rate, and she suddenly didn't know how to act.
For all her talk about wanting to be treated as a grown woman,
the only thing she could think of now was running and hiding
under her covers.

She pulled her hand away from his grasp and fervently tried
to switch the mood back to one she felt safe with. "It-it's not
a big deal. So, how about it? Are you going to start acting like
a real friend and stop being such a stick in the mud?"

Walt shrugged. "Okay. Why not? I'll take Brad out Saturday night. I could use a little fun myself."

Yes! Saturday was perfect. That would give her three days to find a date and maybe go out herself. Her own social life
was already looking up. "You mean it?" she asked eagerly.

"Sure. But on one condition."

Ugh. And just like that, her good mood became crushed,
much like her old Barbie's head.

Here we go. She knew Walt was acting too good to be
true. This was it. This was where the true Walt would come
out, and he would make her promise him breakfast in bed for
a month, maybe even a year. Maybe he'd even want her firstborn and her firstborn's firstborn.

"You've got to come out with us too," he finished.

She blinked up at him, thinking she overestimated his guilt
for mowing down her old Barbie. Why would Walt want her
hanging around a boys' night out? That didn't sound like such
a hot idea. Having his younger sister around wouldn't be conducive to Brad relaxing and meeting a woman.

"Go out with the two of you?" she asked. "Oh. I don't
know. I ..." Think, brain! Think!

Walt leaned in, looking vaguely amused at her uneasiness.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "We haven't seen each other
in years. It'll be a great opportunity for us to catch up and
get better acquainted with each another."

Better acquainted with Walt? She didn't think that was
such a hot idea either.

She dropped her gaze away so she could think better, but
her mind stalled when she ended up with an eyeful of his
chest hair. Not only was she not sure she liked this new personality of Walt's, but she wasn't sure she liked this new dress
code of his. Handsome, kind, and shirtless was not a combination that was going to resolve this sudden infatuation she
was feeling toward him anytime soon.

She drew a shaky breath and looked up. "Well, uh ... as a
matter of-"

"Great" He beamed, and the corners of his eyes crinkled
in a way-too-appealing manner. "It's a date then"

"Oh. Yeah, that sounds ... great" A date. With Walt.

And her brother.

No, not great. And not exactly the kind of date she was
looking for. But maybe this was what she needed to get a
guy like Walt out of her system. Ever since she'd seen him,
her body responded to him in ways she wasn't used to. It
worried her.

Whenever she'd gone on dates or hung around attractive
men in the past, she'd always been able to have a great time
and keep her emotions in check. But when she looked at
Walt, it was an entirely different matter. The last thing she
wanted was to be drawn to someone like him. He was just
like her brother-overprotective, domineering, someone
who saw her as a person unable to make intelligent decisions. Yikes. No, she didn't want that. She had met and even
dated a few of those Neanderthal type know-it-alls in college. That was enough for her. She wanted a man who saw
she had a good head on her shoulders and saw her for what
she really was-not just a little sister who needed protecting.

She was sure that once Walt and Brad were together,
they'd go back to their old ways of treating her, and she'd be
reminded of all the reasons why she should ignore her physical reaction to Walt. Then she could go back to concentrating
on a more important matter-finding her brother a woman.

After four days at the store, Walt was still finding things
he could improve upon. He hadn't anticipated putting this
much work into it so soon, but once he had a chance to oversee the pharmacy without his uncle in the way, Walt's business instincts automatically took over.

Expired drugs had already been pulled from the shelves,
but prescriptions from four years ago still needed to be boxed
and filed away. The antiquated way of keeping their books
had to be updated to a better computer system. The good
news was the video surveillance camera he had ordered
would be in next week. He hoped they'd at least be able to
figure out how the condom thefts had happened and prevent
any other shoplifting. Now if he could just come up with
a way to keep their sales from slipping further, he and his
uncle might actually be able to hold on to their business for
the foreseeable future.

Walt decided to give his eyes a break from all the paperwork he'd been perusing and checked his watch. Eleven fifty-five. The next technician was scheduled to arrive any
minute, and it happened to be one Georgiana Louise Mayer.

He sighed.

Maybe it was his imagination but it seemed as though
Georgie had been avoiding him these last few days. Fortunately for her, he'd been pretty busy doing paperwork in the
stock room. Randall had been understanding enough to do
pharmacist duty all week so that Walt could look over the
business aspects of the store more closely. Today would be
the first time she and Walt would really be working together.

A small part of him even looked forward to it.

"Hey, Walt"-Dee called, breaking into his thoughts-"I
need you to come over here and check this drug interaction
before I print the label."

Walt pushed Georgie out of his mind and approached the
computer. After he typed in his initials, he began flipping
through the screens until he located the interaction. Dee kept
courteously silent as he reviewed the potential problem, but
he could tell she was anxious to speak to him about something by the way he heard her fidgeting behind him.

"Okay, I'm going to write a note on Miss Hanley's prescription bag to remind you that I want to talk to her about
how to take these pills before she takes them home" When
he was met with silence, he turned around and looked at her.
"Got that, Dee?"

"Sure, no problem," she said, but she had a glimmer in her
eyes that made him uncomfortable. "And speaking of no
problems ... how's living with Brad and Georgie going?"

Walt avoided her gaze and finished writing his note on
Miss Hanley's bag. How was living with Brad and Georgie
going? Living with Brad was fine. Living with Georgie, well,
that was another story. True, he'd barely seen her but those
few brief times had been hellish enough. Especially when she sashayed around the condo in nothing but skimpy Red
Sox nightshirts.

There was a limit to how many cold showers a man could
take in one morning.

He played with the folded-up edges of the prescription
bag and hesitated answering another moment, hoping his response wouldn't come out sounding like the outright lie it
was. "Living with them is great. Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought I picked up on some kind of
vibe between you and Georgie the other day." Dee gave him
a tight smile and pried the prescription from his fingers. "I
guess it must have been my imagination."

"Yeah, I guess so," he muttered.

Vibes. Yeah, right. Women see what they want to see.
There weren't any vibes going on between him and Georgie.
How could there be? He may have thought Georgie was very
attractive, but that didn't mean there were any vibes going
around. Vibes would mean he was interested in her. And that
wouldn't be right. Getting involved with her would muck up
his employee-employer relations. More importantly, his
friendship with her brother. He wasn't about to test its loyalty. Brad's friendship meant too much to him.

Dee cocked her head. "You know, you don't sound like
the same Walt Somers my brothers used to talk about when
they were in high school. Does that strangely noncommittal
answer mean that Georgie is out of luck and you're already
involved with someone else?"

"No," he said with a sigh. "There's no one else. I haven't
had the time to think about dating lately."

"Ah-ha, the plot thickens," she said, grinning. "This is getting better than any Clay Hayes show I could be watching
now." She plopped down on one of the stools nearby and made
herself more comfortable. "So, allow me to analyze, if you will. A good-looking guy like yourself has no ex-girlfriends in
the background or hot prospects on the horizon? What's the
matter with single women today? Next to Brad, you seem to
be the most eligible bachelor around." Her eyes narrowed as
she suddenly wagged her finger at him. "You have any funky
skeletons in your closet we should know about?"

"Uh, no. No skeletons in the closet. Just your average
hometown boy who likes to keep his love life an off limit
topic from town gossip."

"Hmm," she said, nodding and tapping her chin. "I get it.
Butt out, right? Oh, pooh. That's no fun."

"What's no fun?" Georgie rushed into the pharmacy just
then, with flushed cheeks and those long red curls of hers
kinking and swaying against her shoulders like festive Mardi
Gras streamers. "Sorry I'm a little late, Walt," she said all
out of breath. "Couldn't find my lab jacket. I guess I'll just
wear Al's over there, if that's okay with you"

Walt could only nod as the scent of oranges and flowers
floated around him as she dashed toward the coatrack. He
wondered if all his employees smelled as good and he just
hadn't noticed yet. He stood there, transfixed by her scent.
Then his breath caught in his throat as she unbuttoned and
slowly peeled off her sweater coat. Oh, crap! He realized he
was doing it again-ogling her like a sex-starved teenager.

Were these the vibes Dee had alluded to? Or was he losing
his mind? Georgie wasn't doing a striptease in the pharmacy, but the way his body was responding she might as
well have been. He quickly caught himself and closed his
mouth before Dee got any further suspicions.

So much for not being interested. Brad would slug him for
sure, if he knew where his mind was heading. Georgie wasn't
even wearing anything provocative-a light-blue blouse and a
plain black skirt that fell to just above her knees-yet he still couldn't look away. He noticed Georgie had very nice legs,
and although Al's pharmacy coat was at least two sizes too
big, it wasn't anywhere near long enough to cover them up.

He was obviously in for a long night.

"What's no fun?" Georgie repeated, shoving some pens in
her pocket and walking over to them.

Dee jerked her thumb at Walt. "He doesn't want to talk
about how such a prime specimen like himself has managed
to elude the marriage market for so long."

Georgie batted her eyes. "I could probably venture a
guess or two"

When Walt didn't respond to her jibe, she felt a small stab
of guilt for automatically poking fun of him. Customers approached the register, and Dee hurried over to wait on them.
A prescription came through the fax, and Georgie went over
to the computer to type a label. Unfortunately, she had to
force herself to concentrate on what she was reading.

Well, why wasn't Walt seeing anyone? The man certainly
had attractive attributes, if you went for the hot, blond, surfer
type. He wasn't a workaholic. He obviously wasn't a playboy either. And, unlike Brad, Walt couldn't be distracted
from meddling into his sibling's life. So why was there no
girlfriend in the picture? There must have been droves of
women dying of heartbreak when he'd moved from
Philadelphia to Maritime City.