Love's Last Chance by Jean C. Joachim Page B

yourself that.”
    Dorrie fussed with her purse and canvas bag
to cover her discomfort. Drake could always cut through the
bullshit. Damn him! “Is he—”
    “Yeah, he’s coming. Said he wouldn’t miss
it. A five-year, summerhouse reunion? Damn.” Drake chuckled and
shook his head.
    “What’s so funny?” She gripped the railing
to keep from falling as the ferry listed to the left.
    “You’d think we went to college together,
instead of just spending some wasted summer weekends, drinking too
much and being jerks.”
    “Speak for yourself,” she sniffed.
    “I’m speaking for all of us.” Drake bumped
into her as the boat bobbed on the wake from a larger craft.
    “So why did you come?” She moved away from
him.
    “I miss those days. Looking forward to being
an idiot again with the rest of the idiots.” He chuckled.
    They hit calmer water. Dorrie smiled as she
leaned her elbows on the railing and allowed her mind to take
flight. Visions of that last summer with Johnny danced before her
eyes. Games of beach volleyball, Frisbee, and picnics with
radios blasting. Dancing in the sand, and everyone singing along to Don’t Stop the Music. Throwing each other into the ocean to
sober up.
    Then, one magical night with the best
looking guy she’d ever seen, and her closest male friend became her
lover.
    Parties, endless parties all summer long.
Every weekend had been one long party that started with beer on the
ferry to the island on Friday afternoon and finished with plenty of
caffeine disguised as iced coffee on the ferry ride home on Sunday.
Every kind of drink you could make with fruit juice and booze
chilled by huge blocks of ice had been served in a clean bucket.
Beer flowed like water.
    Six-foot hero sandwiches, mammoth bowls of
homemade spaghetti and ice cream by the gallon fed the group of
eight, plus friends. Dorrie’s mouth watered at the memory. If she
closed her eyes, she could practically taste the cold, creamy mint
chip confection and the warm lips of Johnny Flanagan. Wait. How
did he get in this memory?
    “What really happened between you and
John?”
    “Doesn’t matter. Water under the bridge.”
Dorrie trained her gaze at the island growing larger and closer by
the minute.
    “Then why are you here?” He raised his
eyebrows.
    “To be an idiot with the idiots. To get
drunk, go swimming, and be stupid. Why else?” Not telling you,
Drake.
    Drake laughed and pulled her in for a hug.
“Dorrie, the un-party girl. You crack me up.”
    While Dorrie accepted her friend’s embrace,
she thought about her real reason for coming. I want to give
Johnny one more day, one more chance…the day I didn’t give him five
years ago.
    The boat slowed as it approached the Fair
Harbor dock. They had rented the same two houses they’d had every
weekend for that fateful summer and several summers prior. Drake
was lucky to get both places, one was to be the boy’s house and the
other, the girl’s, just like five years ago.
    As the dockhand caught the rope, people
crowded around the gate. Drake and Dorrie were in no hurry. The
beautiful thing about Fire Island. No deadlines, no place to go, no
hurrying. Relaxing and more relaxing. Reading. Making Love.
Paradise of the North. She smiled to herself and slowly
proceeded toward the exit.
    They were almost the last to get off. The
man on the dock reached in to grab her big suitcase and yank it
down off the vessel. Dorrie thanked him and turned to look for
Drake. She didn’t see him, but did hear a deep, smooth voice behind
her. “Can I take that for you?”
    She whirled around and came face-to-face
with Johnny Flanagan, wrapping his long fingers around the handle
of her valise. “Why…uh…no. I can manage. Really. It’s okay. Really.
I mean…” The light gleamed off his sunglasses, hiding his eyes
completely.
    Still, she could feel the warmth of his
stare as he looked her over. The skin on her chest, exposed by her
low-cut T-shirt, was burned by his gaze. She