“Good morning, Miss Preston. Mr. Hogan.”
Carolina smiled at Oren, the captain of the flight crew. “Good morning, Oren.”
“We’ll be taking off shortly. We’ll have you into Daytona Beach in no time. Enjoy the flight.”
After the captain went into the cockpit, Carolina turned to face Drew. “We’re spending New Year’s Eve with Gray and Evelyn?”
“Not exactly. They had a change in plans and decided to go to Virginia to be with Evelyn’s parents. With the baby news, they wanted to spend some time with her parents and talk wedding plans. So I talked to Gray, and he’s letting us use his house.”
“Oh. This is fantastic.” An overnight in Florida trumped a cold New Year’s Eve in Times Square every time.
“I knew you didn’t want to be in the city for New Year’s Eve. I thought you might like to go someplace warmer. I actually was going to get us a hotel room there and asked Gray about the plane, but then he told me they were heading to Virginia and offered up the house. I didn’t refuse.”
“It’s a great house on the beach. And someplace warmer is a wonderful idea. Thank you.”
They took off, and Carolina busied herself with working on her line. She had models in place, and had pretty much decided on which clothes each of them would wear. There might be a few switches, but other than completing production, she was mostly finished. Now she just had to get advertising going, and she had to get Drew on board for that, along with one of her female models for the women’s line. She’d already talked to the agency and had selected one of the female models to do the advertising shoot for the women’s line.
She leaned back and closed her eyes, needing to rest and gather her thoughts.
The next thing she knew, Drew was shaking her shoulder.
“We’re getting ready to land.”
She blinked and opened her eyes. “Already? I must have fallen asleep.”
He smiled at her. “Just how hard have you been working this week?”
“Oh, not too hard.”
He gave her a look. “I don’t think I believe you.”
They landed and she and Drew both thanked the crew, who insisted they were thrilled to spend New Year’s Eve hanging out on the beach. Her father was flying their families out to spend it with them, so they were all excited.
Drew had rented a car. They threw their bags in the backseat and headed toward the house.
Carolina loved Gray’s house. She’d been out a few times, and he’d even let her stay there on vacation when he was away racing. She loved the expansiveness of it—right on the beach, no neighbors close by. It was gorgeous and peaceful, and as they pulled into the driveway, one of Gray’s staff was there with the key.
“Thank you, Louisa,” Carolina said, taking the key from her.
“The house is fully stocked for you. I’ll be back tomorrow—at three o’clock, Mr. Preston said—to get the key back?”
“That’s right,” Drew said.
Louisa nodded and left. Drew took the key from Carolina and opened the front door.
Carolina could already smell the ocean breeze wafting in from the open terrace doors. She walked to the terrace and outside.
It was warm out, so much warmer than Manhattan. She wanted to immediately shed her clothes and take a walk on the beach.
Drew came up behind her and put his arms around her. “I thought this might be more fun than the craziness at Times Square.”