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"Wow, those were tough questions"

Drew

She nodded "Yes, but not the first time they’ve been asked, and probably not the last ti"

"The et that a lot, especially after a loss They shove a camera in your face after you’ve played what you think is the lousiest game of your life and then they ask you how you feel? How the hell do they think you’re going to feel? You feel like shit And then they either want you to talk about why your previously awesoame play has suddenly disappeared, or they want you to throw one of your teammates under the bus It’s a no-win scenario with the a to criticize"

He led her over to one of the sofas and sat her down She took another couple sips of chaainst hter of the currently sitting vice president, which h profile Two, I’m a Preston, and I come from money, which will lead everyone to believe I staffed out the creation of this line to ghost designers and it will be anything but original Three, because I worked for David Faber, everyone will be watching what I send down the runway to be sure I haven’t stolen any of his designs Which ht twice as hard to be taken half as seriously as other designers"

He swept his hand down her back "It’s a lot of pressure on you"

"Yes" She finished off the glass of chane and laid it on the table in front of her

"But you’re smart, and I’ve seen your work You’re very talented And because you’ve lived in the public eye so long, I think you handle the aze to his "Thank you for that I appreciate your confidence in ainst the sofa "When I was in college, I struggled School was tough, the whole studying while playing a sport kicked my ass, and I wasn’t the best player out there I wanted to party with my friends who didn’t have to work as hard as I did For a while there, I wasn’t sure that I could cut it It was just too tough on ot soreat advice fro hockey since I was a little kid, and it’s what I’d always loved And that if I wanted to give up and quit, that was h that I could beco I wanted But he toldhockey And if I wanted to play, I’d have to suck it up and work hard at it

"He was right So I sucked it up and studied hard and played hard and got better at both And I proved to my coach and to my teachers that I could focus Not that I was a scholar or anything, but I got the grades I needed to get, and ht out of college by the Travelers"

"That’s a"

His lips curved "Not really I still wasn’t all that great I was a passable player, but not as good as a lot of guys ue hockey for a while, where I kept trying to proveI’d never be good enough to get called up"

"That ed "All it did was piss "

Carolina touched his arm "Which you did"

"Yeah, I did I hated all those asoles that didn’t believe in ood I could be It took me two damn years, but the Travelers called ood, Lina I’ 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 soed "We didn’t really know all that ht of you as the rich girl who had it easy"

She laughed "I struggled so e I was chubby the first year, then after I slimmed down, I was socially aard I didn’t kno 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"

"Uhsorry?"

"It’s not your fault Totally e And that’s in the past, anyway The thing is, I understand what you’re saying About then, and about now There are sos I can’t I can’t control what the media says and thinks I can only control what I do How I createn it the best way I kno"

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 havingthe VP All you can do is say, ‘Hey, I’ner, and here’s"Well, I don’t know that I want to go that far in , 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 hieous he was Beyond that, she was amazed at how perceptive and deep he was And she’d always relegated hi 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 so we could make out on the sofa"

"Terrible idea, especially if the person who co for us is my mother"

"Or your brother"

"Yes"

They made their way back to the party, where, thankfully, the otten their photos and sound bites and had taken their leave WhichDrew 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 ti to burst," she said

"Bull You’ve hardly nibbled"

"You’re co me to yourself, and you burn off a lot a stuff that you woa 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"

She heated from the inside out "You need to kill the sex talk in this crowded roo so close to rinned at her She shook her head and went off to find Evelyn, as at the other end of the buffet line

"I can’t stop eating," Evelyn said