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

Spencer finally stopped on the far side of the kitchen, shoved his hands down into the pockets of his jeans, hung his head. "There's only dad running his family with the same force and intimidation tactics he uses on his department."

Jeanne felt her mouth narrowing, her lips pursing. This was not all Yancey's fault; no matter how much she wished it so, Spencer was no longer an innocent boy. "He caught you with Candy."

One brief nod. "Jase's dad wasn't doing so well, so me and the guys didn't stay out there long. I thought I could see Candy for a few minutes before Dad got to the Barn."

"But you timed it all wrong." Another nod from her son, and Jeanne sighed, pulling out a kitchen chair and wishing she could take this load off her heart as easily as she took the one off her feet. Why did everything lately tire her so? "What happened?"

"Nothing that hasn't happened before." He rubbed at his forehead, fretting, looking like the little boy who'd hated waiting for his father to find out he'd been playing with the tools he knew were deemed off-limits. "Dad got all hostile about Candy being worthless."

"He did not!" Exaggeration was one thing, and she understood her son's upset, but she would not have him lying about or misrepresenting his father. "I don't believe that for a minute."

"Might as well have been what he said." Spencer pulled his hands from his pockets, tugged his ball cap low on his forehead, then crossed his arms. "I know it's what he means."

"Oh, Spencer, honey. Your dad likes Candy just fine." A wife lying about her husband was another thing. "He just doesn't want you distracted from football and school. You know that."

"Yeah, well, I'm already distracted." He leaned back against the kitchen counter, antsy and restless, moving to hook the heels of his palms over the faux marble edge. "It looks like something bad may've happened to Jase. Dad was questioning Liberty about what she saw."

Jeanne's stomach clenched. She didn't know either of Spencer's friends personally—few kids from Earnestine stepped outside to make friends—but she was a mother and she knew about heartache. Knew more than many mothers ever would. "Oh, no, Spencer. I'm so sorry."

And then it hit her. Liberty had to be the same girl, the runaway, Yancey suspected Neva of harboring. If he was questioning her, if he had, indeed, located her at the Barn, the implications for Neva ... "You found this out from your father?"

"Yeah, uh, sorta." He shrugged, rubbed a hand over his ryes. "Liberty's been working for Neva and Candy, doing stuff in the showroom and packing shipments, things like that."

Working for Neva. Wouldn't that mean the girl wasn't a runaway? "And she knew something about what happened to this Jase?"

"I guess she was with him when he disappeared. It sounds bad. I don't know what it was." He rolled his shoulders. "She was pretty upset, and Dad told me and Candy to shut up and get out of the way. I didn't hear what Liberty told him."

"Is that why you're angry with your father?" Jeanne smoothed her hand over the vinyl tablecloth, finding a tear in the fabric. "Spencer, that's part of his job. And I really doubt he told anyone to shut up."

Spencer finally looked over, his expression challenging, his green eyes cold. "He told Candy to shut her mouth. And then he nearly ran me off the road."

"What?" She clenched her hand into a fist, ripping the fabric further.

"Not only that," he went on, his chin coming up, "he Jerked me out of my truck and got all up in my face to make sure I knew that she's nothing."

Jeanne felt the sting of tears behind her eyes. This was not the Yancey she knew and loved. Imposing his will as a father was one thing. But he was not a violent man, and nothing their son said would ever change her mind.

"Anyway, me and the guys were talking on the way back from Jase's dad's place." Spencer paused, hedged, bounced one heel nervously. "He's got that huge ranch to run, and it's calving season in a couple of months. With Jase gone, we thought Mr. Bremmer could use some help—"

"Oh, no." Jeanne surged to her feet, fueled by a rush of dread. "You're not quitting school before you've even started. You're not staying home another year. You have a scholarship, Spencer. Do you know what that means?"

"It means I'm good at playing football." He waited, as if making sure he had her attention. "But I'd really like for once to be good as a person."

Her chest hitched. "You are a good person."

"Candy won't talk to me about anything important, tells me she doesn't want to ruin my future. Dad doesn't want me to date Candy, tells me he doesn't want me to ruin my future." He gestured wildly with one hand. "Now you don't want me to help Mr. Bremmer because you don't want me to ruin my future."

"Spencer, sweetie—"

"Maybe being here now is more important than my future. Have any of you thought about that?" He was pacing now, the width of the small country kitchen and back. "I'm never going to play pro ball. I know that. And I also know without the scholarship I won't be going to a school like Tech. At least not this year. But there are always other years, Mom. There are always other years."

He looked-up as Yancey's car lights cut across the kitchen window, then turned and gave her a look that came too close to telling her his decision was made before he bounded up the stairs to his room.

She waited several seconds without breathing, listening to Spencer's footsteps. They matched the hard pounding beat of her own breaking heart. What was she going to do? Allow her son to be a man and make his own decisions? Destroy his life the way she'd destroyed her own? Acting rashly in the