Georgie on His Mind (14 page)

More flashes went off. Walt's arm was suddenly around
her, and she heard a reporter yell, "Miss Mayer, what was
your first reaction when you heard the news?"

Georgie held a hand up to her eyes. The lights they kept
throwing in her face appeared like a second sun. She tried to
blink away the effects and lost her balance, ending up with her
chin in Walt's chest. "Uh ... well, I guess you could say-"

"No comment," Walt growled and pushed her none too lightly through the doorway. She stumbled in, and Brad
slammed the door behind them.

She could tell Brad was not happy about winning the
contest. Air was coming through her brother's nose in short
snorty puffs, like a rottweiler picking up the scent of raw
meat. Although she was still blinded, she took a weird sort of
comfort to learn that her hearing was pitch perfect.

"What the hell, Georgie?" Brad finally cried. "I mean ...
What the hell?"

She blinked, allowing her eyes to focus in the normal
light, then winced when she could finally see him. The rottweiler image she'd imagined wasn't that far off. In fact, he
looked ready to tear her limbs apart at any second.

With his teeth.

She cleared her throat and held up her index finger. "I can
explain everything." I hope.

"Can we have a word in private?" he asked Walt.

Walt shrugged and took a step toward the bedroom, but
Georgie grabbed hold of his arm. "No, it's okay. I think Walt
should stay." As a witness to my attempted murder at the very
least.

"Fine," Brad muttered. "But honestly, what were you thinking, entering that contest, Georgie? Do you know what kind
of reputation a guy like Clay Hayes has?"

She opened her mouth, then promptly closed it. One, she
wasn't aware of any reputation that Clay Hayes had, and
two, why would he be worried about Clay Hayes' reputation
if he won a date with Rae Roberts?

Brad whirled around and began pacing the room. "And
now you've gone and gotten yourself a date with that guy.
You really did it this time. Oh, man, and I thought Tim Clark
was bad, but now this."

"Wait a minute," she said, slamming her hands on her hips. "What was the matter with Tim Clark?" Walt poked her in the
back, and she remembered the more important matter at hand.
"Oh. I mean ... did you say I have a date with Clay Hayes?"

"Yeah, Georgie, what do you think I'm so upset about?"

She suddenly felt lightheaded. What was going on? She
took a deep breath and began again. "All right. There has to
be some mistake. I didn't enter that contest"

Brad stopped pacing and looked at her. His face relaxed
a millimeter. "You didn't?"

"She couldn't have entered," Walt chimed in. "She promised me she was only entering you"

Brad's eyes widened to regulation golf ball size, and he
thwacked her on the shoulder. "Enter me? You entered me in
that date contest! What am I going to do on a date with Clay
Hayes?"

Georgie shot Walt a thanks-a-lot look then raised her
voice over Brad's swearing. "Oh, chill out, will you? Your
date isn't supposed to be with Clay Hayes. It's supposed to be
with Rae Roberts. But you can forget all about that, because
you didn't win."

Oh, my gosh. It hit her then, like an elbow in the back of
the head. Brad didn't win. Brad didn't win the date contest.
She won the date contest.

"Well, thank God I didn't win. But what's worse," Brad said,
emphasizing each word with a poke in the air toward Walt,
"is that you knew about this whole thing. You should have told
me she was up to something like this."

In an instant, all thoughts of her winning the date contest
flew from her mind, and she rounded on Brad. "He should
have told you?"

Walt looked uneasy, shifting his gaze between her and her
brother. "Yeah, well, maybe I should have mentioned what she had in mind to you, but I honestly didn't think anything
would come of it."

"See?" Brad said, turning away from her. "This is what
I'm talking about. This is exactly why she needs twentyfour-hour surveillance."

"Oh, come on, Brad," Walt said, not masking a chuckle at
the ridiculousness of his statement. "Do you really think
Georgie needs to be treated as one of your suspects to be
monitored twenty-four seven?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I do."

Georgie had heard enough. Her lips tightened as she
waved both arms in the air to get their attention. "Um, hello?
The suspect is present and accounted for, so stop talking
about me like I'm not here. And I don't need to be watched
and hawked over twenty-four seven. I was just trying to put a
little fun in your life, Brad. Who knows? Maybe you would
have cracked a smile for once and had a good time."

Brad stared at her, looking all outraged and offended, as if
wanting him to be happy was a million times worse than the
Alcatraz kind of living he'd been putting her through lately.
"If you must know, there have been things on my mind," he
said tightly. "So excuse me if I haven't been contributing to
this sudden smile quota you've imposed on the house. But if
you were that concerned about my laugh muscles, comedy
club tickets might have been a better alternative."

She shrugged. "Yeah, well, hindsight and all that"

"I don't understand how Georgie's name could have been
entered then. How could she have won?" Walt asked.

Georgie didn't understand it either, but computers and
technology weren't infallible. With the way her luck had
been heading lately, she should have at least expected something crazy like this. "Look, I don't know how the mix-up happened, but the fact is it happened. So we're all just going
to have to accept it and move on"

"Oh no, we're not," Brad said, shaking his head. "You're
going to march out there and tell the media that it's all a big
crazy mistake and to go home and forget the whole thing."

She blinked, surprised at how highhanded her brother
sounded, even for him. This whole situation was confusing,
and she didn't mean to upset him, but that didn't mean he
could treat her like an idiot and embarrass her in front of Walt.

"Just stop it! Stop ordering me around!" Georgie raised
her hand to her pounding forehead. What a mess. She felt
one step away from her head snapping off and deserting her
body for good. She pressed her eyes shut and tried to think.

What should she do? What did she want?

She wanted Brad to stop telling her what to do, that's
what she wanted. She wanted freedom to live her own life.
She wanted to date whom she wanted. She wanted independence. She ...

She wanted to stop thinking about Walt's lips on hers.

There was only one thing left to do about all that. "I'm going on that date," she announced, ignoring their shocked
faces. "End of discussion."

"But you can't," Brad said, still looking dazed. "What's
the point? Nothing will come of it. You can't have a relationship with someone like him. And you might even get hurt"

"I won't get hurt. Honest. I want to do this." She felt
Walt's gaze on her, but she didn't dare look at him to gauge
his reaction. A little part of her was curious to know, though.
He had said he had felt a connection with her. Now she had
probably gone and hurt his feelings by saying she'd go out
with another man. But it was for the best.

"You know, it might be good publicity for the diabetes
expo," Walt finally said.

Publicity? She swung her head in his direction. Walt was
thinking about publicity? She couldn't help feeling miffed at
this sudden turnaround in attitude. She thought he'd at least
fight for her a little more instead of throwing her on a date
with another man so soon.

"Yeah, the diabetes expo," she mimicked, trying to sound
upbeat and failing miserably. "Right. I guess some attention
would come to it."

"Hey," Brad cut in, eyes aimed like daggers at Walt, "just
whose side are you on?"

Walt raised his palms up in surrender. "I'm not trying to
be on anyone's side. Clay Hayes is harmless. So what's the
problem in capitalizing on that? I'm just trying to be rational
here."

"Oh, yeah? Well, go be rational with someone else's sister."

"Enough!" She snapped a little louder than she'd wanted,
but she couldn't help it. If she didn't snap, she'd cry. And she
wasn't about to show Walt that her feelings were the ones
that were hurt.

"I'm going to go freshen up and give a statement to the
press out there," she announced, thrusting her chin up for
effect. "Please, I would appreciate it if you didn't do anything
to embarrass me further."

She was met by silence. Taking that as an acquiescence she
marched to her room, hoping once again she'd taken hold of
her life and made the right decision-and that maybe by going on that date, she'd forget all about Walt's kiss.

Brad sank onto the sofa with his head in hands. "Do you
see what it's like with her?"

Walt nodded, gritting his teeth in frustration. Oh, he saw
what it was like living with Georgie all right. And she was
driving him one short block away from the looney bin.

Had he really said that he thought her winning that date
would be good for business?

Business? He almost laughed out loud. Ever since he'd
kissed her, business was the furthest thing from his mind.

There was something more than mere attraction going on
between them. Something even more than chemistry. He'd
never felt a spark like that toward anyone before. Not even
toward his ex-fiancee. He didn't know what, but whatever it
was Georgie was sure afraid to face it. Maybe he was afraid
to face it too, and that's why he had said what he did.

"She's impossible to reason with," Brad said, breaking
out of his thoughts. "And because of that she now assumes
I'm the worst brother on the planet."

"Don't sweat it. You're a good brother. Georgie knows
deep down inside you're just looking out for her."

Brad rolled his eyes. "Gee, I explode on her and practically threaten to handcuff her to the house. Yeah, that really
conveys I'm looking out for her best interests."

Walt couldn't resist a grin. "A little extreme for some, but
yes. In your defense, Georgie does seem to get herself into
more trouble than the average woman."

"So you don't think I said anything that was crazy?"

Walt gave him a noncommittal shrug. Between him and
Georgie it was really too close to call who was more crazy.
He cleared his throat and went for a more diplomatic response. "Uh, as her brother, you had every right to say what
you did and to be worried."

"You've got that right," Brad said with a nod. "And now
she's got herself involved with some actor. No thanks to you."

"Me?" Walt blinked. Did he exude an "easy target" aura?
Both Brad and Georgie seemed to get an unusual amount of
satisfaction by pinning the blame for their problems on him.
Maybe he should rethink moving in with his uncle, for more reasons than that. "Oh, come on, Brad. You know if I had
sided with you, she would have come to the same decision,
only ten times faster."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Brad shook his head and
let out a hard sigh. "I give up. Maybe I should just stop trying to protect her and let her live her life the way she wants.
I should take a Vegas-like attitude-whatever happens ...
happens. You know, butt out of her life."

"Well, I suppose that's the right thing to do," he said,
grudgingly.

Brad looked thoughtful for a minute. "Yeah, I could butt
out of her life, but ... but that doesn't mean you have to butt
out of her life."

Those familiar warning bells went off in Walt's head
again as he heard the keenness in Brad's tone. He obviously
needed to find a new best friend. "Hold on, I don't like the
sound-"

"Yeah," Brad said, a slow grin spreading across his mouth.
"You can make sure Georgie doesn't get hurt for me"

"Hey, I thought we already went over this. And we already
decided it was a bad idea."

"I know what we agreed, but look." Brad stood and walked
over to the coffee table, on which sat a picture of Clay Hayes
with a full-toothed grin. He picked it up and waved it in
front of Walt's face. "Look at this guy. Do you know what
kind of reputation he has?"

Walt didn't know, but he had his suspicions. Just the
thought of Georgie and Clay Hayes alone together made his
fists clench. He looked away. There was no way he could allow her to go out with some hotshot clown like Clay Hayesno matter what he'd said about publicity for the pharmacy.

How did he get involved in this whole mess?

When Walt had decided to move back to town, he thought it'd be nice to be with his family and true friends again. He
thought he'd be gaining some stability in his life. But noooo.
Instead, his life gets handed a five foot five red-haired walking
complication. A complication he felt a totally stupid and inappropriate need to protect that went beyond any friendship with
her brother.

"Okay. I'll do it," he told Brad.

"You will? You'd do that?"

"Yeah. I see now what you've been going through. You're
right. Georgie is ... special. And I don't want to see her hurt
any more than you do. With me around, Clay Hayes isn't going to think that she's another townie woman he can just love
and leave. She deserves more. Much more. Uh, you know,
like you said."

"All right," Brad said, folding his arms and cocking his
head to the side. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing" He heard the petulant strain in his voice and
immediately tried to lighten his tone. "I realized you were
right about Georgie. That's all. I mean, what are friends for?"

Brad stared him down for a moment, then he shook his
head and chuckled. "Hey, man, I'm sorry for getting all
weird on you there. It's just for a moment, I thought ...
never mind. I owe you for doing this for me. At least now I
can relax knowing she's in your good hands"