At the open end of the harbor, a lobster boat plodded in around the outer tip of Stiles Island.
“She asked me to get her a gun,” Jesse said.
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H I G H P R O F I L E
“I have several,” Sunny said.
Jesse nodded.
“You can issue her the license.”
Jesse nodded again.
“But,” Sunny said, “you’re not sure she should be walking around with a gun.”
“No,” Jesse said. “I’m not.”
“It should be her call, Jesse.”
“She doesn’t even know how to shoot,” Jesse said.
“I can teach her.”
“You think she should have one?” Jesse said.
“Believe her story for a moment,” Sunny said. “Think about what that might be like. Would you like to face an overpowering enemy with no gun?”
Jesse nodded. The lobster boat had rounded Stiles Island now and was moving stolidly along the shoreline of Paradise Neck.
“And if we don’t believe her story?” Jesse said.
“Something has happened to her,” Sunny said. “She feels she needs a gun.”
“And maybe she needs to be trusted.”
“Skeptically,” Sunny said.
“We think we might want to be together, you and I,”
Jesse said.
“And here we are worrying about one of the people who may keep us from being together,” Sunny said.
“It’s hard work,” Jesse said.
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R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“But we need to do it,” Sunny said.
Jesse looked at her. He felt the pull of her. But it was not the same kind of pull Jenn exerted. Nothing was. There was no other feeling like the one Jenn caused.
“Okay,” Jesse said. “Give her a gun.”
Sunny smiled.
“I already did,” she said.
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