From the Damage 1 - Opposites Attract by Jasmine Denton, Genna Page B

all would know he was still madly in love with his late wife. So, for now, she reasoned that just being his friend was enough.
    “I think,” Gage said suddenly, drawing Kelly out of her trance, “if you told your mom about the abortion, she’d lay off you about getting back together with the jerk.”
    Kelly shook her head. “I can’t tell her. You know that.”
    “Why not?”
    “Tell my mom I killed my baby? No thanks.”
    “Kelly,” he sighed, “you had a legal medical procedure done—”
    “ Illegally done,” she corrected. “Remember? I used a fake ID and pretended to be eighteen. Besides, Mom is strictly pro-life. She’d...” She shivered at thinking of how angry her mother would be if she knew what Kelly’d done. “She’d hate me.”
    “You’re her daughter,” Gage said, “and trust me on this one—as a parent, I know—nothing you do could ever make her hate you. I’m sure she’d be a little angry, probably disappointed, but she wouldn’t hate you. So stop using that excuse. What’s the real reason you won’t tell her?”
    Kelly sighed, watching as Spongebob frantically searched his house for his missing snail-cat. “It’s like you said. She’d be disappointed. I’m just too...too ashamed of the entire thing.”
    With a small, compassionate sigh, he reached over and draped his arm around her shoulders, filling her with such a safe feeling that for a second that it rendered her breathless. “You don’t have anything to be ashamed of, Kelly.”
    She turned to look at him, to tell him that yes, she had plenty to be ashamed of, and that’s when she saw Lizzie curled up with her head on one of the throw pillows, clutching the teddy bear to her chest as she slept soundly. “Look,” she whispered to Gage.
    He glanced over at Lizzie, his face broadening into a smile at how precious and sweet and peaceful his little girl looked. Reaching over, he turned the lamp off, leaving the room lit only by the blue glow of the television set. Kelly settled underneath Gage’s arm, nuzzling her head against his shoulder and giving a small smile of satisfaction when he tightened his grip around her.
    ≈≈≈

    Meagan walked into Rob’s house for his weekly party and searched the room, her gaze immediately seeking Ryder. He was always at a party, playing bouncer. He should be here by now, she thought, scanning every corner of the place.
    Smoke hung in the living room as a thick fog, and loud music blasted from a large entertainment center. Meagan weaved through the crowd until she came to the kitchen, where people gathered around an island playing quarters.
    When her gaze landed on Seth, suddenly, all of the bodies felt too close to her.
    She could smell their sweat and perfume, and it was too strong, making nausea do a vicious dance in her stomach.
    Seth was watching her. She could feel his eyes on her, as if he could see right through her skin, and in his eyes, she saw what he was thinking. He was thinking she was alone at a party again, and he was drunk again.
    She shrank away, disgusted and desperately in need of the Knight Ryder.
    Stumbling out the back door, she staggered out and into the cool night air. The constant chirping of crickets resounded in her head, a loud and obnoxious song. She leaned against the side of the house, held onto her head, and tried to calm herself. But leaving the party’d been a mistake, for she knew the second the door opened, Seth would step outside, and that was exactly what he did.
    Fear mushroomed inside her body, and she jumped off the open porch and onto the grass, hoping she could make it around the house before he...
    Seth reached out and grabbed her wrist, swinging her around until he held her tightly clutched in his arms.
    “Seth, knock it off,” she warned, struggling to get away, but he was so strong.
    He’d always been so strong. “Let me go!”
    “I tried to warn you about tattlers,” he said, his drunken breath smacking her in the face. “Maybe I