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{{Infobox character
| name             = Layna Drake MacGregor
| image            = 
| aliases          = 
| occupation       = Heiress; Drake's department store family
| first_appearance = ''The MacGregor Grooms''
| series           = [[The MacGregor Series]]
| books            = ''The MacGregor Grooms''
| partner          = [[D.C. MacGregor]]
| family           = Drake department store family
| allies           = [[Myra Dittmeyer]] (godmother), [[Anna MacGregor]], [[Daniel MacGregor]]
}}
'''Layna Drake MacGregor''' is a character in Nora Roberts' ''[[The MacGregors | The MacGregor Series]]''. The heiress to the Drake's department store family and the heroine of the first story in ''The MacGregor Grooms'', she is [[D.C. MacGregor]]'s romantic lead and eventual wife.

== Overview ==
Layna is polished, self-possessed, and equal to D.C. in every way he tests — which turns out to be the point. Daniel MacGregor, engineering their meeting through their shared godmother [[Myra Dittmeyer]], chose well. Layna neither backs down from D.C.'s wariness nor is impressed by his family name, which is precisely what he needs.

== Background ==
Layna comes from the Drake family, which built the Drake's department store empire — placing her in the unusual position of being an heiress in the same conversational territory as a MacGregor, without being intimidated by it. Her godmother is [[Myra Dittmeyer]], who is also D.C.'s godmother — a connection that Daniel MacGregor engineered long before Layna or D.C. knew it existed.

== Personality ==
Layna is composed and self-contained in a way that reads, initially, as cool. It is not coolness — it is the self-possession of someone who has learned her own value and doesn't require external confirmation of it. She holds her own against D.C.'s prickliness from their first meeting and matches him without effort, which startles him and then draws him in.

She is warm beneath the composure — genuinely warm, the kind of person who earns Daniel MacGregor's approval, which is not easily given.

== Story Arc ==
=== ''The MacGregor Grooms'' ===
Layna's story is the first in the collection. The engineered meeting through Myra goes roughly as Daniel planned and not at all as D.C. anticipated. Layna navigates D.C.'s defenses with patience and a certain clarity about what she wants, and the arc moves toward the commitment that the MacGregor pattern demands.

== Relationships ==
=== [[D.C. MacGregor]] ===
Layna and D.C. are a pairing of equally stubborn, equally private people who recognize something in each other that they haven't found elsewhere. Their relationship earns its ending.

=== [[Myra Dittmeyer]] ===
Layna's godmother, and the linchpin of Daniel's scheme. Myra's relationship with Layna is warm and genuine, predating the MacGregor connection entirely.

== See Also ==
* [[The MacGregors]]
* [[D.C. MacGregor]]
* [[Myra Dittmeyer]]
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:MacGregor Series characters]]