Georgie on His Mind by Jennifer Shirk Page B

ruined everything and
kissed him. He and Brad would have had a good laugh about
that too, much to her expense. One little compliment and she
went into full-force infatuation mode.
    Not a good way to exhibit maturity.
    She snuck another peek at Walt. He was still reading his
paper upside down. She had to smile.
    Dee was right about another thing. Walt was sure fine to
look at. Georgie couldn't help but appreciate the way his lab
coat molded nicely over his wide shoulders and back, and
she experienced a little tingle of awareness again.
    Hmm. Infatuation mode was pretty hard to distinguish from
lust mode. But she supposed there was no harm in enjoying
the view. For now. At least, until she could decide if this infatuation with Walt was a good or bad thing. Maybe after their
dinner tomorrow night with Brad, she'd have the answer.

     

I thought you said Georgie was going to meet us here?"
    Brad tipped his chin hello to a passing blond, whose smile
at the mere acknowledgment could have lit up all of Las Vegas, before he answered. "Yeah, she'll be here. But I think
she said something about getting her toenails painted or
something before coming over."
    Walt lifted his beer and took a healthy swallow. The last
thing he needed was to be reminded of any body parts on his
friend's sister. Georgie had adorable toes-not that he had a
toe fetish or stared at her feet often-but when Georgie was in
a room, it was hard not to notice everything about her. Toes,
ears, eyes, hair, legs ... lips. He had just proved that point
yesterday when he'd almost kissed her in the pharmacy.
    What had he done, thinking he could invite her out like
this and prove he could still treat her like he always had?
This friendly dinner get-together idea wasn't going to work
at all-not if he wanted his relationship with Georgie to remain platonic.
    Why couldn't he just remind himself that Georgie would bring nothing but complications to his life? She was like
family. He was her boss. Her brother owned several guns ...

    Walt looked back at Brad and forced a smile. "Toenails
painted, huh? I hope she's not getting all dolled up just for us"
    Brad snorted as he picked up a menu. "Get real."
    "Oh, right. What I meant to say is that Georgie is a natural
beaut-She's very attract-Uh, she doesn't strike me as the
type of woman who gets her nails done on a regular basis."
Walt mentally rolled his eyes at himself. He needed to get
his act together before he went and blurted out in front of
Brad that he had the major hots for his only sister.
    "Nah, she isn't the high-maintenance type," Brad said. "I
can guarantee you if she is getting dolled up, it's not for us.
I'm sure my sister's got some ulterior motive. I just hope she
doesn't attract any more of those loser types I've had to get
rid of. It's getting to be a bit of a hobby, one that's going to
send me to the grave if she doesn't start becoming more
discriminate."
    A moan from the bar area had them both craning their
necks to see the wide-screen TV around which most of the
men in the place had congregated. After a few minutes of baseball highlight reports, Brad pointed toward the crowd around
the barstools. "Hey, what do you think about him? You think
that guy over there would be a good candidate for Georgie?"
    He followed his friend's gaze where it had settled on a tall,
dark-haired, good-looking guy in a gray business suit. The man
reminded Walt of a young Alec Baldwin. "No way in hell."
    Brad's eyebrows shot up. "You're kidding, right? That guy
looks like a normal guy with a halfway decent job, and I don't
see a wedding band on his finger. What's wrong with him?"
    Walt thought about that for a second. Unfortunately, he
couldn't think of a thing. Oh, hell. There wasn't anything
wrong with him. On the surface, that is.

    Walt studied the guy with a little more scrutiny this time.
He still couldn't find anything physically wrong with himbesides being a bit of a fancy boy with