She loved seeing the fire in his eyes, the confident way he spoke about playing hockey. “You know, in college, I always thought of you as the hot jock all the girls chased. I never thought of you as having any substance. I never thought of you as someone who struggled.”
He shrugged. “We didn’t really know all that much about each other back then. I thought of you as the rich girl who had it easy.”
She laughed. “I struggled so much in college. I was chubby the first year, then after I slimmed down, I was socially awkward. I didn’t know how to deal with all the attention I was getting. And I was trying to focus on my studies, which were so important to me. That drove me. And then, of course, I had that monster-size crush on you. You were such a distraction.”
“Uh . . . sorry?”
“It’s not your fault. Totally mine. But typical for the age. And that’s in the past, anyway. The thing is, I understand what you’re saying. About then, and about now. There are some things I can control, and other things I can’t. I can’t control what the media says and thinks. I can only control what I do. How I create my line. That’s my performance. And I’m working my ass off to design it the best way I know how.”
He rubbed her back. “That’s all you can do, Lina. You can’t be anything other than what and who you are. You can’t apologize for being a Preston, for having money, or for your dad being the VP. All you can do is say, ‘Hey, I’m Carolina Preston, I’m a fucking brilliant designer, and here’s my stuff. Like it or kiss my ass.’”
She burst out laughing. “Well, I don’t know that I want to go that far in my advertising, but I like the sound of it.”
“Okay, so you can modify it some, but babe, there’s a lot of shit you can’t control. The media is one of them. Just do what you do best, which is make clothes. And try to tune out the rest of it.”
She looked at him, struck by how gorgeous he was. Beyond that, she was amazed at how perceptive and deep he was. And she’d always relegated him to the dumb jock category.
How very wrong she’d been. “You’re very smart. And you possess a lot of common sense.”
He leveled a wry smile at her. “I like to think of it as self-preservation.”
She laughed, then stood. “I guess we should stop hiding out in here before someone comes looking for us.”
“Too bad. I was just thinking we could make out on the sofa.”
“Terrible idea, especially if the person who comes looking for us is my mother.”
“Or your brother.”
“Yes.”
They made their way back to the party, where, thankfully, the media had gotten their photos and sound bites and had taken their leave. Which meant everyone was free to enjoy the rest of the evening. Drew led Carolina over to the buffet, where they enjoyed crab- and lobster-stuffed pastries, along with so many other delicacies that Carolina was so full she could barely suck in her stomach by the time Drew had filled two plates for her.
“This dress is going to burst,” she said.
“Bull. You’ve hardly nibbled.”
“You’re comparing me to yourself, and you burn off a lot more calories than I do.”
“Just do some of that yoga stuff that you women like to do and have another plate.”
She laughed. “Yoga stuff? Maybe I should go ice skating. Then I’ll end up with a sculpted body like yours.”
He leaned in closer. “If your body looked like my body, I wouldn’t want to have sex with you.”