I said, “Absolutely.” She squeezed my body. I hugged her back, as hard as she was hugging me.

“You feel so good,” she said, and I said, “Um-hmm.” The next second she was standing on one leg, trying to get into her panties. She said, “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being so wonderful to me.”

“No problem,” I said. She ran around the room, looking for clothes. She took my baseball hat and fitted it on her head. I was still in bed. She leaned down next to me.

“You’re the kind of husband women wish for.” She gave me a kiss, pulling my lips with her teeth.

“O.K.,” I said. She took the camera and flew out the door.

•      •      •

IT WAS FOUR o’clock. I was on my own. I thought of going back to find Joanie on the beach. I flipped open my briefcase and then shut it, and got up and showered and left the bungalow.

I stopped by the Tiki Bar for a last drink. Jimmy, the bartender, was there, washing the bar off with a hose. The woman from the boat came, and we said hello. I hadn’t seen her since the bonfire that night.

She was wearing a bikini and had a slim leather belly bag clipped around her waist. She wiggled her ass onto the next bar stool and lit a smoke and said, “Jim, what do I want?” He shoveled ice into the sink, waiting for her to answer. She said, “Rum-and-Coke, my favorite.”

“I’m going back to Baltimore on Sunday. I miss my cats,” she told me. She’d been here at least a week. She said, “They bill this place as a singles’ resort, but I didn’t see any singles here. Just me. And a couple of Swedish guys in G-strings.”

I said, “How many cats?”

“Two. They’re probably dead by now. My sister’s been feeding them.”

I was thinking about Diane. The perfume smell of her hair, the velvet softness of her baby skin. We got so close. She was floating all around me.

“I bet they’re O.K.,” I said. “Don’t get depressed.”