Larger Than Life by Alison Kent (read the beginning after the end novel .txt) 📕

back to California, the only place she knew to go, and she had no money, no transportation, and ending up as a prostitute, living on the streets somewhere between here and there, was a worse end than marrying Cal Able.

Maybe she could get the wedding postponed until after her birthday. September wasn't that far away, and then her parents wouldn't have any say in what she did. And even if she had to get married then, it didn't have to be forever. She could stand it long enough to figure out a way to get a divorce.

The sex and the babies thing though ... "I don't suppose I could get a prescription for birth control under an assumed name," she said, then cringed when she realized who she was talking to. God, Holden Wagner supported everything that happened in Earnestine. She tried to smile. "I was just kidding, you know."

He didn't rebuke her. He didn't make her feel small. He looked at her straight on, like an equal. "There is one other thing I need to know. If you want me to help you."

Was he kidding? "Help me how?"

"By making your homecoming easier." He smiled a bit. "By coming up with a solution that might sit better with you while still pleasing your parents and the church elders."

God, but he was thinking of everything! She'd tell him her entire pathetic life story if it would help. "Ask away."

"You're almost eighteen, right?"

She nodded, turned to drop onto the edge of her seat. "In September." And then it hit her. "They're going to rush this through, aren't they? Before my birthday?" Before she could get away or make any sort of plans.

"You're a very smart girl, Liberty. A very pretty girl." He looked away, stared off into the distance. "Are you still a virgin?"

She closed her eyes, bowed her head, shook it.

"Then I guess girl is the wrong word, isn't it?"

"And I guess Cal won't buy super tampons as an excuse, will he?"

At that, Holden chuckled. "I like you, Liberty. And if you like me at all, or at least like me better than you do Cal Able, then I think I have a solution to both our problems."

What kind of problem could he possibly have? And why did it depend on her liking him? Unless . . . She swallowed hard. "A solution?"

He dropped down to crouch in front of her, ignoring the way the weeds messed up his pants. "I've been in Earnestine seven years. I belong to the church, but I've been reluctant to embrace a lot of the doctrine. I've been more concerned with upholding the law and the residents' constitutional rights."

She knew all about Holden's position in Earnestine. Everyone did. He was pretty much a legend. "The First Amendment. I know all about it."

"Good. Now, here's the thing. The city fathers, many of whom serve as church elders, believe my arguments would hold more credence, carry more weight, as it were, if I were married."

Liberty's heart began to pound. "And how many wives do they think you need for that credence and weight?"

He laughed then, a sound that was soft and deep at the same time, as if coming up from a place far beneath the surface of the parts of him she'd seen. "As many as possible."

She snorted, turned her head away. "Have fun."

"What they don't understand," he went on to say, "is that there is still a lot of outsider in me. And I only want one woman in my life."

Her heart thundered harder than before. Her chin came up. Her ears continued to ring with the way he spoke the word woman. "Like I said, have fun."

He took off his sunglasses, rested the hand holding them on her knee. His eyes were dark blue and they twinkled like stars, especially when he smiled. "I want you, Liberty. I want you to be my one and only wife."

"Not that it's any of my business, but do you want to tell me what that was about?"

Having lowered himself gingerly to sit in the swing hanging from the porch wrapped around Neva's house, Mick scratched FM's ears and watched the woman pace a trough in the plank floor, arms crossed over her chest, her fury evident. "Seems like an awful lot of drama for one small town."

He'd stood by earlier, leaning what weight he could painlessly manage against the grill of his ride, and studied the group as those huddled around the picnic table left two by two. The sheriff and the jock kid, obviously related. The shark and the girl, a strange pair.

That left Neva talking quietly to the black woman, both exaggerating their gestures and expressions. Friends, for certain. Coworkers, he assumed. Partners, maybe. But there was something else, too. A deeper thread, a connection. One he'd need more time to dig into and find.

And since it had seemed the two were going to be at it awhile, he'd whistled for FM and headed down the road on foot, accepting that the hike would take a hell of a lot out of him, knowing if he stood still any longer he'd seize up like so many bad gears and never be able to move. He was paying for it now, Neva's heavy footsteps jarring his bruises and bones.

The last time he'd seen her, she'd been cutting him out of his clothes. He obviously hadn't made much of an impression since he was now completely invisible. He was surprised that bothered him; it shouldn't have, even though he had definitely noticed her.

And doing so had obviously thrown his self-preservation tactics for a loop. He'd misread the spark in her eyes, the flare of her nostrils, the pulse at the base of her throat. He'd thought it attraction, not a signal of fear; he'd since had to reassess. And now what he wanted to know was what scared her, what about him had set her off.

He couldn't have that happening. Not in his line of work.