Chapter 1

April looked off into the distance watching the small fishing boats and the compact cruisers for the tourist trade move slowly in both directions along the shoreline outside the buoys that marked safe passage. This was her second day on the island and she was beginning to think she was silly for taking the long ferry ride in search of romance and excitement.

This week marked the final week of the high season. It was a time when vacationers were planning their return home to boredom and drudgery. The price for the full week was a bargain but everywhere she looked she saw the year round residents closing up the lucrative shops and restaurants in spurts of energy. In a sense, she knew she had made a mistake when her best friend Lucy had begged off because she needed to get ready for her first semester at Brown University. Lucy always went everywhere with her and was the one who generally managed to get them hooked up with guys looking for female companionship. Not that she was shy or anything, it was just that Lucy had a way with her that let boys know she was "available" and the assumption was that her friend was also.

She had her bikini on underneath her short skirt but it was more for show than any actual intention to jump into the water from the dock or to make use of the pool that was included in the price of the weekly rate. April dug out the pack of cigarettes that Lucy had given her on their last adventure to the racetrack hoping to find some gambling males with lots of winning tickets and an urge to find a female to impress. That had been a bit of a bust because it had started to rain right after the third race and everyone was crammed inside the clubhouse and the lower grandstand watching the races on the little televisions on almost every wall. Fortunately, one of the older men who paid out the winning tickets let them come back into his barricaded office and allowed them to watch him counting out the money and checking the tickets to make sure they were real and not counterfeit.

April was aghast to see Lucy on the floor down between the man's knees doing what comes naturally while he counted out oodles of cash to happy winners. They probably wondered why the normally sour-faced oldster had such a silly smile on his face but would never have guessed it was all due to Lucy's hyperactive tongue. When he reached out to play with one of her fully clothed boobs, April wanted to laugh at his greedy naughtiness but it actually felt so good that she just acted like nothing was going on and let him have his way without comment. Her sense of being bad was heightened by merely looking at her best friend on her knees right next to her.

It certainly didn't look like she was going to get any action here on the island without Lucy to pave the way for her. If only she had some of Lucy's assertiveness in seeking situations that opened up endless opportunities to be bad. Still, she had no complaint because the breakfast this morning was absolutely super and the weather couldn't be any better.

She lit up a cigarette and pretended like she knew exactly what she was doing and was desperate for a drag on the much-maligned innocent white stick.

"Excuse me; miss, might I trouble you for a smoke?"

She looked across the dock at the pile of clothing and saw it was actually a human being curled up in a ball like a turtle inside a shell. The hoodie all but hid the bearded face and the deep suntan that defied description. She offered him the pack safe in the knowledge that with all the fishermen and the tourists on the dock there was little chance the man was dangerous.

April watched the man take a cigarette and place it between his lips and then pull another out and stick it behind his ear. It looked like something he did all the time when he bummed a cigarette. Not that she cared because she hated the things anyway. The guy didn't look like a bum; he looked more like one of the fishermen and was probably out of work.

She passed him the lighter that she had gotten from her brother who bought it the base PX and didn't like it because it was too bulky to carry out in the field. He looked at it and saw the insignia and gave it back to her without comment.

"Do you always help yourself to a second cigarette?"

April regretted the question as soon as it passed her lips. She was dreadfully afraid it would annoy the man because it sounded so condescending. She was surprised when he just laughed and answered,

"It's a force of habit. I keep trying to tell myself that I have quit smoking but when I get near the stuff I just have to have one and when there is one I know there must be two."

He took a long drag on Lucy's cancer pill and April saw the look of sheer bliss pass over his face like he had just had sex. She was not too clear on the sex angle because to date she had only managed to follow Lucy on the mouth front and some interesting hand action she had explored on her own, but she was a virgin both fore and astern with only rides on her teddy bear to give her some idea of what to expect.

She hoped it didn't show on her face or anything because she was incredibly sensitive about it like it was a mark of shame rather than pride. At twenty, she felt she was long past the "breaking in" phase of sexual relations and that if things went on this way she might be erotically crippled for life.

The disheveled young man moved closer and sat next to her on the wood deck. She was perched on the edge of the mooring post and was certain the strange man could see all the way up her skirt to the pink bikini underneath. She wondered if he thought he was looking at her actual panties and not a bathing suit.

"My name is April and I am in that Bed and Breakfast right there on the corner. I guess the season is ending so fast that most of the vacationers are thinking more about getting home than having a good time."

He laughed and pushed back the hoodie so she could see his bearded face. His hair was sun-bleached and his tan was so heavy that he looked like a foreign sort but she could see the lighter skin under his collar.

"I've been working the fishing boats this summer but they are cutting back because the restaurants are starting to close and they don't need the catch here on the island. Pretty soon, most of the boats will head back to Martha's Vineyard to catch the all-year round weekenders. I'm probably going to head back down to Florida to work the boats down there during the winter. You ever have been to Florida?"