Georgie on His Mind (23 page)

Apparently she was. Because here she was on a perfectly
nice-although not as exciting as she'd thought-date with
Hollywood heartthrob Clay Hayes, and all she could think
about was how she wished she were on a date with Walt. She
missed him. His laugh, his smile, even the overboard concern he had for her well-being. She'd thought she'd done the
right thing by avoiding him this past week, but not seeing
him only made her think about him even more.

Why wasn't he here? Brad probably had told him by now
that she'd left on her date. She half expected Walt to do
something crazy when he found out, like barge in on her date
and demand she come home with him. Only ... Walt wasn't
barging through the doors. He obviously had listened to her
when she'd said she could take care of herself and make her
own decisions. Which was good. For the best, really. But ...

This was so unlike Walt. Didn't he care about her anymore?

Clay snapped his fingers in front of her to get her attention. It did, but the rudeness of it also didn't win him any
points with her. "Why do you keep staring at the doors?" he
asked. "Aren't you having a good time?"

"No, no, I'm having a great time," she said, pasting on a
smile and willing her gaze to focus on Clay's nose and not
the front door of the restaurant. "It's just that ..

Clay put down his menu, giving her his full attention.
"Are you expecting someone?"

Georgie blinked. He was a more perceptive person than she thought or even gave him credit for, and suddenly she felt
guilty for allowing herself to be so transparent. "Well..

"I won't tell you I'm surprised. You're a beautiful woman,
Georgiana."

She blushed, then smiled a little at his use of her full name.
For as long as she could remember, people in town who
knew and loved her had only called her Georgie. Including
Walt. "Thank you"

"I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't make you forget
about another man. I've been doing these date contests all
over the country. You're the first woman I've met who's had
both beauty and brains."

Walt had said the exact same thing about her. Her gaze
dropped to her lap when she realized how foolish she'd been
about misjudging Walt's feelings about her. Walt had said he
loved her too. But she had been afraid of her feelings, of becoming so attached to him, and she had used her anger at
him as an excuse to push him away.

"This is also the first contest I've done where I've had
someone spy on me from behind a fake tree," he added.

Georgie's gaze snapped up. "What? Someone's spying?"
Her heart lifted. She wanted to turn around and look, but
didn't want the perpetrator to realize he'd been pointed out
so soon.

Walt. It had to be Walt. He had come to spy on her date.
She knew it! Half of her was overjoyed-and the other half
infuriated.

Oh, gosh. Did love always make you feel so mixed up?

"Don't worry," Clay said. "I'll handle it." He signaled for
his bodyguard to approach the table.

"No. Wait," she said, laying a hand on his arm. "I'll
handle it."

An eyebrow arched up. "Oh? Get this a lot, do you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Let's just put it this way. The past
few weeks have made me a pro" Not that she was complaining anymore.

Clay was shaking his head in amusement as she stood
from the table. Her gaze darted around the room, then she
walked toward the tree whose leaves had begun to shake.

Could he be more obvious? Walt's spying techniques were
pathetic. But it didn't matter. She was just so glad to have
him concerned about her again. She couldn't wait to tell him
just that, and she doubled her steps. When she reached the
tree, she quickly parted the branches to catch him by surprise. "Ah-ha!" she cried.

Dee and Kendall's shocked faces stared back at her.

Kendall grabbed her chest and sprang up from her kneeling position. "Good heavens, Georgie!" She visibly swallowed, then tried to catch her breath. "What on earth would
make you sneak up and scare us like that?"

Georgie ignored the question and quickly scanned the
dining area instead. Where was Walt? There was no sign of
him anywhere. Huh. So he hadn't come for her after all. She
fingered her bottom lip and looked around one more time.

Walt definitely wasn't there.

She didn't know how to feel about his absence. This was
what she wanted after all, to be left to her own decisions, to
not have him or Brad interfere with her life. Apparently Walt
finally got the message. But something suddenly didn't feel
right about it. Did she actually miss his overprotecting now?
She certainly wasn't feeling smothered any longer. But she
wasn't exactly feeling loved any longer either. There were
just so many times a man would take being pushed away.
What had she done?

"Are you all right?" Dee asked, breaking into her thoughts.

Hardly. In fact, her chest hurt and she was about to burst
into tears.

"I ... I think so," Georgie lied, rubbing her heart. She
looked at them and the overly concerned expression on her
friends' faces snapped her back to the matter at hand. "Hey,
you guys have a lot of nerve being mad at me for scaring you.
Just what do you think you're doing playing Alias with a
plastic birch tree? Clay Hayes could have you both arrested"

"Arrested?" Kendall squeaked. "He wouldn't!"

No, Clay Hayes probably wouldn't. He seemed too nice a
guy. But Dee and Kendall didn't know that. "What are you
guys doing here anyway? Did Brad or Walt send you to check
up on me?" she asked, not sure what she was hoping to hear.

Dee and Kendall exchanged guilty looks. "No," Dee finally said. "We're here because we were worried about you."

"Good heavens," Georgie mumbled as she slapped a hand
over her forehead. "Please tell me you didn't just say what I
think you said." Her friends were worried about her. Wonderful. First Brad, then Walt, and now them. If this wasn't
the end-all kicker in the pants to this last month's overprotective craze, she didn't know what was.

Kendall's gaze flickered with a brief flash of uneasiness toward where Clay Hayes was sitting. She licked her lips before
she spoke. "Georgie, Dee and I have a confession to make"

Georgie's mouth fell open. "Oh, no," she groaned. No! No
more confessions! She wasn't sure how many more admissions her heart could take in a week.

"You know how you were wondering how you won this
date?" Dee asked. "I mean since you hadn't entered yourself
in the contest? Well, surprise. Kendall and I entered you. But
you were harping on a lot about Brad ruining all your dates,"
she rushed on to explain, "so we thought it would be almost
impossible to ruin a highly publicized one."

Georgie closed her eyes, thinking about how all those
foolish things she'd been doing lately must be catching.
"So you thought it'd be better if you guys ruined my date
instead of Brad?"

Kendall chuckled. "No, of course not. We didn't mean
to mess your date up, but after all that stuff Brad said
about Clay Hayes ... well, we thought we made a mistake
and just wanted to make sure you were okay. And since
Walt-"

"What about Walt?" Georgie interrupted. Her gaze darted
to the door again. "Is he outside?"

"Uh, well, no. We stopped by his house on the way here,
because we figured he'd want to come with us. But he was
determined not to come here and interfere."

"Oh. Right." Georgie's heart sank. "That's ... good. I
mean I did accuse him of trying to control my life." Funny,
but now that Walt was out of her life, her life felt more out of
control than ever.

"But weren't you sort of trying to control Brad's life?"
Dee gently pointed out.

"No, I-" Georgie's eyes widened. Yes, she had been interfering with her brother's love life. But it was different. It
was because ... She blinked several times. Because she
loved her brother, she had been trying to interfere in his love
life and find him a woman. Oh, great. She had been doing
exactly what she accused Brad and Walt of doing in her life.
There wasn't any difference at all. Tears formed in her eyes
at the thought of how foolish she'd acted toward them.
"Somebody please shoot me," she said in defeat. "I think I
may have ruined things with Walt over my stupidity."

"Honey, Walt told us about your fight," Kendall said. "He
sure looked miserable, didn't he, Dee? Like it was taking all the willpower in the universe not to think about you out with
another man."

Georgie dabbed at her eyes. "You really think so?"
Kendall nodded emphatically. "Walt loves you, honey. I
think that's why he's not here. He's trying to give you what
you said you wanted. No pressure. No interference. You do
still want that, right?"

Did she? Georgie thought her legs were about to give way.
Dee must have thought so too, because she grabbed a chair
and slid it under her. Walt still loved her. And he was trying
to show her that. Only she didn't want him butting out of her
life anymore. She wanted him in her life. She loved Walt's
overprotectiveness. She loved Walt.

Was it too late to tell him all that?

She looked up at her friends. They loved her too, and because of that, decided to spy on her date with a famous actor.
She almost laughed out loud. Was this the crazy stuff you did
for people you care about that Walt had tried to explain to
her? If so, she had been a fool for not realizing this sooner.
And she decided she was about due to start doing some crazy
stuff herself.

"I'm going to find Walt," she announced, feeling stronger
and hopeful at just saying the words.

Her friends' faces lit up like Fourth of July fireworks.
"Thank goodness!" Dee exclaimed. "I thought you'd never
come to your senses and make up with him."

Kendall grabbed her arm as Georgie stood. "Yeah, we're
both happy for you and that's great and all, but what about,
uh, you know who?"

Georgie frowned. "Who?"

"Clay Hayes," Kendall said, motioning behind her.

Georgie glanced over her shoulder at Clay, who appeared to be happy enough flirting with one of the waitresses. "Oh,
he'll understand," she said with a smirk. "I have a feeling
Clay was just looking for a fling anyway."

Walt tapped his pencil against the kitchen table as he
pored over the pharmacy's business reports. He figured the
best way to forget about Georgie's date with a handsome
TV personality-who had little regard for unassuming
beautiful women-was to peruse through two months' worth
of profit and loss statements. He already noticed the prescription count had gone up by over a thousand for the
month.

See? He was totally focused on work and not on Georgie. In
fact, he was able to completely block out all the smarmy lines
Clay Hayes could be using on her tonight. Hadn't thought
twice about how incredible Clay Hayes must be finding the
scent of Georgie's hair right now. And he definitely forgot all
about those black boots she was wearing now too.

That did it. He shot up out of his seat and his pencil and
papers flew to the floor. Who was he kidding? There was
only one way to end his maddening thoughts of Georgie. He
was going to have to barge in on her "good time" with Mr.
Movie Star and make sure she was all right.

He marched over to the TV and started flipping channels.
There had to be some news report on their date and where
they were headed tonight. Then he found it. Entertainment Tonight said the couple was having a wonderful time so far and
had plans to have dinner at a trendy new restaurant in the
shore town.

Trendy? Here in Maritime City? He scratched his head.
He could think of maybe two possible restaurants. There
wasn't time to waste if he had to check them both out. He
grabbed his jacket, flung the door open, and crashed right into a warm body. A soft, warm body who squeaked and
smelled like ... Georgie.

"Georgie?" He reached out with both hands to steady herand himself. His mind had trouble focusing. He couldn't
believe Georgie was actually standing in front of him. She
looked liked an angel-in knee-high biker boots. Those
boots looked even better in real life than in his imagination.
He gazed into her eyes and was filled with so many emotions, so many things he wanted to say to her, he didn't know
where to start. "I like your shoes," he said.

I like your shoes?

After spending a torturous week apart that's the first thing
he says to her?

The corners of Georgie's mouth quirked up. "Thanks.
I like yours too"

Walt looked down and realized he was barefooted. In his
haste to find Georgie and rip her out of Clay Hayes' arms he
had forgotten his shoes.

"Um, were you going somewhere?" she asked.

"Yeah" To find you. But here she was. His hands automatically tightened on her shoulders. He had her now, and he
wasn't about to let go anytime soon. "Why aren't you on
your date now? Did Clay Hayes try anything?"