Free Georgie on His Mind by Jennifer Shirk Page B

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.
    Not that she was interested in Walt's love life for any reason other than simple curiosity. She just figured that maybe
she should get to know Walt a little better. For Brad's sake.
Walt did seem a little different now than when she'd known
him all those years ago. She hated it when people made assumptions about her, but here she had pigeonholed someone
else in the exact same way. Maybe Dee was right, and she
should give him a small break.

    Walt came over and stood next to her, waiting for the
label to print out so he could compare what she typed out
to what the actual prescription said. This was her moment.
While Dee was at the register, Georgie couldn't resist taking the opportunity to satisfy her own notions about his
attitude toward relationships-and maybe about the man
himself.
    She hit the ENTER key and turned toward him. "Is it
because you feel suffocated?"
    His eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"
    She sighed. The words flew out of her mouth before she
could stop them. Sometimes she wished she could lasso her
tongue. "Uh, you know, the reason you aren't in a relationship. Is it because you ... you know, feel that way?"
    "You mean suffocated?" he asked with an amused grin.
    "Yeah" She bit her lip and looked away. Great. Now he
was laughing at her. But way in the back of her mind suffocation was her biggest fear, which was why she always wanted
her dealings with the opposite sex to be light and breezy.
Less chance for anyone to dictate how she'd run her life.
Once she became independent from her brother and lived on
her own, she didn't want anyone interfering with what she did.
Maybe her fear was irrational, she