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"You never know, Trev The right woht just blindside you when you least expect it"

TWENTY-THREE

FASHION WEEK WAS BARRELING DOWN ON CAROLINA like a h the atmosphere

She barely had tiht her hair out, because either beading had to be replaced on her signature dress or one of the suits wasn’t fitting the ain She was sure a certainhis physique in soo and if she found out he was using perfor that washer have to refit this coat oneto explode

Or h she was out of time, andthrough the lineup of the walk-through, nu everyone on her lineup card, when there was a knock on her door

"Carolina, Es"

She didn’t even look away from her desk "Get her dressed, Tierra, then call me"

"Okay"

She needed to schedule Drew in here for final fittings, too She and Drew had traded phone calls, but hadn’t yet connected She picked up her phone and sent hie

I need you to co What does your schedule look like for this week?

She laid her phone down on the desk, hoping he’d text back today

"Esme’s in the dress"

Carolina left her office and checked the fitting on Eset her for the shoas a big deal She’d put Esown It fit her perfectly Esme walked for her, and of course she did it beautifully

"What do you think?" she asked

"I think it’s a knockout dress," Esrinned "Thank you"

At least so to be the hit of the runway And she hoped the dress would be, too She’d spent hours designing it, crafting it to absolute perfection Es body with her curves in all the right places, and those golden brown eyes of hers that were incredibly , set off Es perfectly Carolina couldn’t have found a better reeing toI’ave "

Hearing those words from Esme, froest designers, made her heart race "Thank you I really hope so"

After Esme tried on the other two outfits, she left, and Carolina huddled with her staff,some notes and adjustments A few otherfinal fittings and discussing alterations She and her staff grabbed lunch and ate in the et back to her office until dark That’s when she realized she’d left her phone on her desk She’d missed several calls, and a return text froht now After that I’m headed out of town Want o She scrolled through her missed calls and saw that Drew had called, too

She tried calling hiot his voice mail He was likely already on a plane headed forso his call, and told hiot back to town

Dammit She couldn’t believe she’dto be out of town for at least a couple of daysshe missed him already Not just because she had deadlines towith him Work separated them so frequently that she could have at least spent an hour with hiusted, and war in front of the television as she worked on her schedule

There wasn’t even any decent hockey on tonight

When her phone rang, she grabbed it, s when she saas Drew

"Hi," she said after she clicked the button

"Hi yourself Busy day?"

"Insanely I apologize foryour text and your phone call I was in the workshop and left my phone on hed "That’s okay I figured you were buried"

"No excuse, since I’ed you Are you settled in wherever you are?"

"I’m in Toronto, and yeah Cold here"

"I’ is the out-of-town trip?"

"I’ll be back Friday Can we arrange so on"

Her staff wasn’t due to work over the weekend, but she could handle it She pulled up her phone "How about Saturday? Do you have a ga"

She chewed on her lip She didn’t want to be pressed for time "How about Monday?"

"That’ll work"

"Great Thanks for et it done"

"I’et to see you today I was sad that I missed you and would have been happy to see you for that hour" The words tuht about them Now they were out there, a confession of sorts It was the first tied, even as she said the how he’d react

"Yeah? I miss you too, Lina I knoe haven’t been able to spend a lot of tiht now, so I was looking forward to getting an hour of your ti before I had to fly out"

She palain I see in a ht now Normally my phone is on ot about it"

"Babe It’s okay," he said, and she heard the laughter in his voice "It’s not like we’re never going to see each other again Monday, right?"