Page 18 of Vacation Friends

She would never be his type.

In fact, she needed to forget about this encounter and move on with her life.

She needed to stay away from highfalutin men. Men like Ryan, who’d stood her up. Men like Garrick, who certainly had his pick of women.

In fact, if Cecilia were smart, she’d get out of this city ASAP.

But making good decisions had never been her specialty.

CHAPTER

SEVEN

NOW

The rest of the day was a blur as Maddie tried to keep up with her obligations, which included breakfast with Josh and a few board members and a shopping trip with several “spouses” from upper management.

Maddie was still shaken from everything that had happened this morning. Plus, she couldn’t stop thinking about that text she’d received.

Had the man who’d died sent it to her? Had he been the one she was supposed to meet? It was the only thing that made sense.

And who exactly was the man? Did he have a family mourning him right now?

She did her best to hide the tremble still raking through her body as she went about the day.

Maddie had become quite good at acting like the person Josh wanted her to be. There were certain expectations that came with dating a man in his position. Maddie considered herself a blue-collar woman. She hadn’t grown up with the need to impress people—which was one reason she’d become a social worker. But now that her job had changed, being presentable was required.

She was, however, looking forward to tonight’s dinner, looking forward to hanging out with people who were “ordinary” instead of rising superstars of the corporate world.

Most of the people she’d met through Josh were skilled at climbing the career ladder. They put on the right facade in order to get the promotions and accolades they wanted. They schmoozed and befriended the right people by keeping up appearances.

In other words, they knew how to play the game.

Maddie had never been one to be fake.

Adrienne, Brody, Bree, and Fowler seemed more like her kind of people.

The kind she’d grown up around.

At six o’clock, she met Josh in the hallway so they could walk to dinner together at the restaurant.

He gave her an approving glance. “You look beautiful.”

She ran her hand down the knee-length, coral-colored sheath dress. The pale color showed off her tan skin and dark hair.

“Thank you. You don’t look too bad yourself.” She grinned.

Josh did look striking in his black slacks and pale pink T-shirt. Looks were never one of his weaknesses—though he often mentioned how much his ears bothered him. He thought they stuck out too much. They’d never bothered Maddie, however.

He took her hand, and they started toward the lobby.

Before they reached it, he paused and tugged her to a stop.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I wanted to let you know that I found out a few hours ago that the man who died in the ocean worked for Benchmark,” he leaned close as he told her, his voice low.

That man had been with the company?

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