Georgie on His Mind (3 page)

"Do you mean Georgie Mayer?"

"Why, yes," his uncle said, his grin widening. "Oh, I forgot you were friends with her brother. Yes, Georgie. She'll
be your right- and left-hand girl. She's a doll. I know you
two will get along swell."

Walt remembered how easy it had been to get little Georgie
Mayer all riled up with his teasing when they were younger,
and had to chuckle. He was already feeling at home with the
memory. "Well, I hope we do get along swell. I'll be staying
with her and her brother until I can find a place of my own.
No sense staying with you guys and giving Aunt Donna more
work to do while you're recovering. It's better I stay out of
her way. Brad has been great doing this for me. It's exactly
what I missed when I was in the city. Loyal friends."

He reached for his plate but there was a sudden gleam in his
uncle's eye, making him draw back and forget the brownie.

"So, you're staying with Brad and Georgie, huh?" Al asked,
beaming. "How wonderful. Spending a little extra time with
Georgie outside of work might be just what you need now
that you're back and looking to settle down"

Walt stared at his uncle until it finally hit him. Mixing
business with pleasure with little, chubby Georgie Mayer?
Yikes. There was a thought he'd rather not ponder.

Ever.

"Uh, no. I don't think so," he said carefully. "I'm on a bit of
a hiatus in the romance department" True. "And you know,
it's not wise to mix business with pleasure. Besides, I'd like
to get settled with the pharmacy and find a place to live first
before I venture out in the dating world." Also true. "But
thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it some thought when I'm
ready." Okay, not true.

It's not that Walt was a shallow man hung up on looks.
He wasn't ... exactly. It's just that Georgie was practically
a sister to him.

His uncle's face crumpled, deepening the creases along
his forehead. "That's too bad. Georgie's having a hard time
finding a nice young man."

Walt didn't say anything, but he could imagine her having problems in that area. The poor kid. From what he'd remembered about little Georgie Mayer, she had short, frizzy orange
hair, was pale as a ghost, and had braces. A bizarro-world trifecta. He assumed everything but the braces had stayed the
same. Nothing against his friend's sister, but those qualities
weren't exactly what he fantasized about in a woman. A
Muppet maybe.

"You know, Walt, I'll be heading over to the store in a bit,
but if you want to go over to Brad's and unpack first and get
yourself settled, you-"

"No, that's okay. I don't mind going with you now. I can
check things out, scope out the store, and you can introduce
me to everyone. I might as well jump in with both feet, right?"

Al smiled. "You're a good man. That would be great. Once
you're acquainted with everything, I'm sure I'll feel better
leaving you on your own. I really appreciate this, by the way."

"Tell you what, you can show me how much you appreciate it by making a speedy recovery"-then he added with a
grin-"partner."

"I like the sound of that," his uncle said with a chuckle.
"I'll see what I can do. But I'm sure the store will be in good
hands. I have a feeling you have a knack with handling business problems."

Walt nodded. Sure, he was an expert at handling business
problems. It was women problems that were an entirely different story. Thank God he didn't have any of those on the
horizon.

Come on, Georgie," Dee called out. "I've got a doctor on
line two who apparently thinks he's above waiting more than
three seconds, and Randall's in the bathroom again." There
was a short pause. "By the way, this doctor sounds single."

Standing out in the prophylactic aisle of Somers Shore
Pharmacy, Georgie held up her index finger to Dee. She
needed one more minute to look things over. Something
wasn't quite right. And as much as she'd love to start repairing her nonexistent love life, that doctor-single or notwould have to wait.

Her eyes roamed the condom display for a few seconds.
Then she saw the problem. Uh-oh. There must have been at
least thirty open boxes of condoms on the shelf. And every
single one of them was empty. She winced as she scanned
the shelves again. The box count seemed higher on second
glance.

How could she have let this happen?

She glanced to the right and left of the aisle, and when she
was positive no one was around, quietly let out a string of curse words only a woman living with her older brother
would have access to.

She felt only mildly better.

Al was going to kill her. All those missing condoms added
up to a lot of money. Money-according to her brother-the
store couldn't afford to lose now. Al would look to her for an
explanation, not his useless employee, Randall. Not that she
could blame him. If she were Al, she'd look to her too. Although Randall was technically the pharmacist and the person in charge when Al wasn't there, he was useless when it
came to doing anything besides tossing pills in a bottle. Randall would be the last person to notice Fourth of July fireworks breaking out in the middle of the store. No, this was
all her fault. She was probably asleep at the switch when
some sex-crazed thief waltzed into the store, stuck the condoms in his pockets, and waltzed right out.

Where was her head? Probably up in the clouds like her
brother had told her last night. Brad was right. She should
care more about her career, not worrying about her social
life, especially if she ever wanted to take over as head pharmacist. If she didn't land this job, how was she going to move
out on her own? She couldn't imagine working anywhere
else. Ever since high school, she'd worked at the Somers
Shore store. Her parents had shopped there. Al Somers had
made the store a staple in the town's downtown shopping
area. She had to come up with an idea to save it.

"Pleeeease, get your bony butt back here," Dee called out
again.

Georgie's head whipped back toward the pharmacy department. Dee stood, waving the telephone receiver like a
runway flag. Customers were making their way to the counter,
and the other phone line began to ring. Randall was still
nowhere in sight. What a surprise.

Letting out a sigh, Georgie walked back down the aisle.
The condom boxes would have to be cleared away later.

She stepped behind the counter and took the phone from
Dee's outstretched hand with a shrug of apology. Holding
the phone up to her ear, the physician barked out a prescription order before she could put a pen in her hand, then
abruptly ended the call. She hung up and cast a dubious
glance toward Dee.

Some single doctor. That guy didn't sound single. He
barely sounded human.

Dee finished ringing up a customer and took a cautious
step forward. "Uh, sorry about the single doctor thing," she
murmured, twisting the end of her long, dark ponytail
around her finger. "I didn't mean to get your hopes up, but I
kind of got desperate back here"

"It's okay," she said with a shrug, taking a prescription
and sitting down in front of the computer. "After yesterday,
my hopes are so low I almost tripped on them walking back
here."

Dee walked over and laid a sympathetic hand on her
shoulder. "Oh listen, honey, I hate to see you so down over
this. Last night's dating disaster was a fluke. You've had to
put up with a lot from your brother these couple of months,
but I think things worked out for the best"

Georgie snorted. "That's easy for you to say. You weren't
there. It was like being in my own private episode of Cops."

"Hey, I personally like that show."

"It's not funny, Dee. Brad's going psycho on me. He treats
me like I'm twelve and hawks over me every waking hour
I'm not here" She thought about that statement and wondered if Brad didn't have a patrol car cruising by the place
that very minute or maybe even a policeman standing guard.

Standing up on tiptoe, she took a peek out the window. Whew. No police bodyguard in sight. Okay, so he hadn't
gone completely overboard.

Yet.

"He's your darling big brother," Dee reminded her. "Overprotection is what they do best."

Georgie perched herself back on the stool and shook her
head. "No. Not to this degree, they don't. Do you know since
I've moved back, Brad has not once gone out on a date himself? Once in a while he goes to a poker game at Steve Wilson's house, but that's it. The man has no life, and now he's
trying to make me the same way. We're going to end up as
the town's only brother and sister spinster team"

"Can a man be considered a spinster?"

She shot her a mock glare. "You know what I mean"

"Okay, I do," Dee said with a laugh. "So you think because Brad has no life, he wants you to have no life?"

She thought about that for a minute. "Well, no, I guess
not. I just think he's been playing the role of Mom and Dad
for so long he can't stop. Brad doesn't realize I'm an adult
now. He needs to stop worrying about me. He needs ... he
needs a diversion."

Dee leaned her chin in her hands and smirked. "A diversion, huh? What are you going to do, order him a stripper for
his birthday?"

Georgie mulled that idea over. It wasn't bad, actually, but
too temporary a solution to her problem. Plus, his birthday
wasn't until winter. She didn't think she'd be able to survive
seven more months of the brotherly prison sentence she was
in, and she didn't know when she'd have enough money
saved to move out on her own. No, what Brad needed was
someone else to focus on, someone else to care about for a
change. And a little fun.

Dee waved a hand in front of Georgie's face. "Uh, I was kidding about the stripper," she said with concern. "I didn't
realize things were that bad at home."

"They're worse. Brad's giving me a complex. I'm beginning to doubt my ability to make decisions for myself."
Georgie picked up a prescription and began entering the information in the computer, then asked, "Is there something
wrong with me?"

"Believe me, it's not you. There's absolutely nothing wrong
with you. You're just having an off couple of week-ermonths. Besides, Hank wasn't so great. You could do much
better."

Hadn't her brother said the same exact thing last night?

Georgie finished typing out a prescription and looked up
with surprise. "You really think I could do better?"

"Oh, yeah," Dee said, bobbing her head up and down.
"Hank had muscle, but no brain. You need to find someone
who's more of an intellectual equal. One who pays his traffic
tickets would be a bonus too. But someone hot. He has to be
hot. Smart and hot. A smart hottie with-"

She held up a hand. "Uh, thanks. I get it now. But honestly, looks don't mean that much to me. At this point, I'd
settle for someone with a face"

"A face, huh?" Dee snickered. "Okay, I guess that's a
start. But besides the obvious necessities of a body, face, and
limbs, what else are you looking for in a husband?"

"Husband!" Her face contorted. "Oh no, Dee, I don't
want a husband-unless of course he doesn't want to get
married."

Dee stared at her for a moment, her brows scrunched together. "I see," she said slowly. "A husband who doesn't
want to get married. Uh-huh, that makes sense" She shook
her head. "Honey, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm beginning to
see Brad's side of the story now."

She let out a laugh. "I'm serious, Dee. I don't want a husband. Besides, I could never find one as great as yours. And
just because I don't want to get married doesn't mean I don't
want a man"

After all, she liked men, and she had certain needs like
every other woman. She just didn't want the love part. The
brotherly love she had from Brad was smothering enough.
There was no need to add a husband to that already tight
noose.

"Well, then I'm glad I brought this in." Dee pulled out a
folded-up section of newspaper from under the counter and
held it out to her. "Read it."

Georgie wrinkled her nose, making a brushing gesture
with her hands. "Not today. I'm not in the mood for any
more dating advice from Ann Landers."

"Just read the headline," Dee huffed. "Clay Hayes is coming to town in a few weeks."

Clay Hayes? Her all-time favorite actor?

"Let me see that." Georgie flew over to Dee and grabbed
the paper from her hand. "Holy smokes! He is coming to
town! He's promoting a TV movie, but he owns a beach
house here and wants to give back to the community for all
the wonderful vacations he spent here as a child growing up.
He loves Maritime City and wants to help preserve the
charm that makes the town such a wonderful family resort."
She looked back up at Dee and sighed. "That's so sweet.
Doesn't that sound genuine?"

Dee chuckled. "Yes. I think he sounds sincere too. And I
know how much you adore him. That's why I think you should
enter."

"Enter? Enter what?"