Georgie on His Mind by Jennifer Shirk Page A

come up with a better plan myself. A diabetes expo sounds
like the perfect solution to get customers in the door as well
as show them that we care about them. You know something,
Georgie? You really surprise me. Who knew you'd be beauty
and brains all in one package"
    He sounded so sincere she wanted to hug him. Her idea
was good. She knew it was. But it was nice to have her idea
validated anyway. Walt even looked right into her eyes when
he spoke that last part about having beauty and brains, proving his sincerity all the more. For once, someone really appreciated the advice she had to give.
    Only ... maybe he appreciated the advice a little too much?
    Because something suddenly changed in the way Walt was
looking at her just then, and she had to swallow hard. His
gaze took on an almost seductive quality as his hand moved
to her shoulder. He moved even closer, and she caught that
delicious light pine scent of his aftershave. Her heart began
to hammer in a nervous rhythm. For one brief crazy second,
it looked as though Walt was going to kiss her. Right there in
the pharmacy.
    Right there in front of Dee.
    Right there in front of Mrs. Johnson-and any other customers still lingering in the store.
    Oh, Lord.
    The real problem was she wasn't as appalled at the idea as
she had hoped. Walt's lips looked so soft. Almost too soft for
a man. Which probably meant he'd kissed a lot of women in
his life-women who wore extra-moisturizing lip gloss. A
man who seemed to be so popular with women couldn't be all
that bad. Could he? For some reason, she desperately wanted
to find out if that theory rang true, so being the complete
hussy she was, she decided to help him out and leaned in too. Then the phone rang. And they blinked at one another.

    The moment ended.
    The phone rang again, and Dee twisted in between them to
answer it. "Somers Shore Pharmacy," she chirped into the receiver as if she hadn't almost witnessed her boss and her friend
about to make out right there in front of her. Dee grabbed a pen
and paper and started jotting down prescription numbers.
    Georgie moved away from the computer-and away from
Walt's hand on her shoulder-to give herself some air. That
was close. She wasn't sure what had just happened there, but
she thought she'd almost kissed Walt Somers. Her brother's
best friend. Her new boss. In the pharmacy.
    But she couldn't help herself. Her lips had felt like they'd
been caught in some invisible tractor beam. Oh my gosh, yes.
Aliens or some other life force had to have been involved.
That was the only way to explain her reaction. Otherwise,
she'd have to admit that she actually wanted to jump her
brother's best friend.
    She glanced at Walt, who was looking everywhere but at
her. She rubbed her temples and hoped something witty
would magically pop into her head before Dee hung up the
phone. The silence between them was deafening. She had to
say something to Walt-anything-to break up the tension
radiating around them or she was going to scream.
    Luckily, Walt cleared his throat and spoke first. "Uh, again,
great work, Georgie. We should start putting your plan into
action as soon as possible. Before summer hits. I'll go see if
I can find the numbers of some of the pharmaceutical sales
representatives in our area. Maybe they'd be willing to give
us some free samples and things we can give away to customers who show up for the expo." He immediately swung
around toward the filing cabinets and started digging through
its contents.

    Georgie stood motionless, staring at his back like some
jackanape. That near-kiss had vanished so quickly she thought
she might have imagined the whole thing-until she noticed
the paper Walt pulled out and was studying.
    It was upside down.
    Oh, great. She obviously had him spooked. The poor guy.
What a dope she was. Walt had given her idea about the diabetes expo serious consideration. He had treated her as a
professional equal. Then she almost