Mark pointed out, our audience does skew older. Think sleek yet simple. Classic and straightforward. Along with a pinch more copy to help guide people who visit the website.”
The laptop snapped shut with a click and Franco jammed his computer back in his bag, although it snagged on the fabric at first, leaving him to fight with it for a couple of extra seconds. The line of his jaw tightened.
Danae said, “We should take a break.” A wise move, Josh thought, under the circumstances. “Paige can make her presentation tomorrow morning.”
Paige nodded, and Vanessa sent a conciliatory smile Franco’s way. “Let’s go wine-shopping,” she suggested to him. “You said you wanted to bring some back for Justin.”
He looped his bag over his shoulder and stood. “Sounds good.”
His exit set off a chain reaction, everyone else muttering that they were going to go take a few last pictures or head to the gift shop.
Then Josh and Danae were alone, and he didn’t know what to say or do. Perhaps he should’ve gone with the rest of them, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave Danae at the table alone after that tense exchange.
Danae pushed her fingers to her temples. “This is why strategy meetings shouldn’t be done over wine.”
“I’m not sure that was the problem,” Josh muttered before he thought better of it.
Danae frowned, and the stress that had been weighing her down when he’d stumbled across her in the vineyard crept back in, tightening the line of her shoulders. “Let me guess, if we’d tied knots for an hour after lunch this would’ve gone better.” He opened his mouth, even though he wasn’t sure what to say, and she held up a hand. “I’m sorry. That was out of line. I just…” Her breaths came out shallow. “I needed for that to go well, so I’ve got a long night of brainstorming on how to fix it ahead of me.” She pushed out her chair and followed after her team, and then Josh was the one alone and sighing.
Not only was the fifteen-minute ride to the ship going to be awkward, everyone was sure to be bumping into each other as they prepared for bed, and tomorrow they all got to wake up and do it again.
While the lighter moments with Danae in the vineyard had been nice, this was a much-needed reminder that relationships were complicated and involved a lot of hassle, whether between coworkers, friends, or couples.
The version of him that had wished for company last night had clearly been delusional.
Chapter Six
Today needed to go better.
No, today would go better.
Danae strolled up to the very tip of the ship’s bow, inhaled the brisk saltwater-scented air, and held it in. Live in the moment. What an easy phrase—one she couldn’t afford. People who lived in the moment were the same ones who later foreclosed on houses or left their loved ones without a safety net.
She was the leader, and that left the responsibility for last night’s tumultuous meeting on her shoulders. While she’d been known to overthink and overstress about every possible scenario that might happen, she wished she’d been better prepared for how everything went down when Franco showed them the beta version of the website. Maybe if she’d written more notes, or studied tips for leading meetings, or…something.
A tight band formed around her rib cage as she rehashed the last ten minutes of dinner, as she’d been doing for the last twelve hours. Franco was very talented, and a total whiz at technology, but he could be a little sensitive about his work. Then again, most people were, it came to their department and their specialty.
While she was trying to remain optimistic, she was seriously doubting her boss’s theory that shoving them all on a boat would miraculously erase their differing opinions. If anything, it seemed to highlight them.
Considering that they were about to sail away from the mainland, leaving her without any escape from the ship for an entire week, she contemplated walking the plank and making a swim for home.
But she wasn’t a quitter.
Besides, that wasn’t on the agenda.
Heavy footsteps cut through the whirl of thoughts messing with her mind, and Josh walked up beside her and gripped the forestay. “Morning.”
“Morning. Sorry about yesterday’s—”
“Look, I—”
Their words crashed in the middle, and Josh gestured to her. “You go ahead.”
Danae fiddled with the charm on her necklace. “I feel bad about how everything went last night, including the fact that it put you in an awkward position.