Keys and Kisses
Untouchable Book Three
Heather Long
Contents
Series so Far
Keys and Kisses
Foreward & Dedication
1. Chapter One
You Went There
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
Somewhere a Clock is Ticking
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
Fix You
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. Chapter Sixteen
17. Chapter Seventeen
The Lonesome Road
18. Chapter Eighteen
19. Chapter Nineteen
20. Chapter Twenty
21. Chapter Twenty-One
22. Chapter Twenty-Two
23. Chapter Twenty-Three
Where the hell…
24. Chapter Twenty-Four
25. Chapter Twenty-Five
Afterword
About Heather Long
Also by Heather Long
Series so Far
Rules and Roses
Changes and Chocolate
Keys and Kisses
Keys and Kisses
Untouchable Book 3
When the year started, I had one goal—make my AP classes count and keep my grades up. Both my focus and my grades started wobbling. Dating my best friends came with perks like hugs, kisses, and invitations to dances, but it also came with cons in the form of vindictive posts, hate mail, and vandalism of my car.
I asked if it could get any worse, and I guess I got my answer.
My college essays suck.
My mother and I are racing toward a collision.
My secret admirer might turn out to be a real friend.
My dance partner wants to walk away to preserve our friendship.
My best friend demanded I keep no more secrets.
My first offered to move in with me.
My second…he’s got my back.
They all do.
But what brought us together seems to be tearing us apart, and I can’t jeopardize those friendships.
I won’t.
I thought losing them was the worst thing, but losing even one…it might be the change we can’t survive.
The real key here isn’t what do I want…it’s am I willing to fight for it?
P.S. I still need to get a damn dress.
Foreward & Dedication
Here we are at book three. Sometimes, I’m flat out amazed that this story has unfolded the way it has. I’ve said before that when I first began Rules and Roses, I had no idea how much I would fall in love with Frankie, Coop, Jake, Ian, and Archie. Nor did I have any idea how much their day to day lives or how they were facing such tremendous upheaval in their personal relationships would come to mean to me. Changes and Chocolates captivated and pushed me as Frankie struggles alternately made me laugh aloud, sniffle, and sometimes just get plain pissed off. Frankie is the kind of girl I’d have been friends with in high school and she’s the kind I want to protect now.
Which brings us to our current tale. Keys and Kisses takes us on another leg of her journey including the personal struggle she faces with her varying relationships from Archie to Jake to Coop and finally, Ian. I laughed aloud in some of these chapters while others made me cry. I love writing this story and I cannot wait to dive into the next one.
This series wouldn’t be complete without the enormous support of Blake Blessing, Rebecca Royce and Sara Vermillion. They’ve been tremendous as cheerleaders (and in Sara’s case, cracking the whip), as sounding boards, and even pushing back in places where I needed to dig deeper and let me tell you, this book is so much the better for it.
Thank you to every single reader who has given this series a shot and to those who left reviews. Thank you to the readers who recommend the series to their friends and to every single person who has reached out to me about it. I see and hear all of you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This book is for all of you, too.
Finally, just a couple of housekeeping notes!
For those of you who have never read a reverse harem before, first let me thank you for picking this up and giving it a shot. Second, a reverse harem means the heroine will not make a choice in this book or any other between the guys in her life. It may take her a while to reach that conclusion, but it’s the journey that drives it. There are many ways to frame this kind of relationship, currently reverse harem fits it very well.
Also, this is the third book in a series. If you haven’t read Rules and Roses and Changes and Chocolates, I encourage you to pause here and go grab them. While there may be no specific happy endings at the end of each of these books, there will be one to the whole series, that I promise you. Some of these books will have cliffhangers, largely due to the size of the story, but the happy ending has to be earned as part of the journey.
Thank you again for reading Frankie’s story and I truly hope you enjoy it!
Chapter One
Every Night is Another Story
“You have to try the blue one,” Cheryl said, holding up the dress toward me. It was a skinny strapless number that would probably hit me mid-thigh.
“Not really my style,” I said.
“No, it’s perfect. You have a great body and the ruching hides anything you might think you need to hide.” A half-snort and laugh later, she added, “Not that you need to hide anything. Does she, Coop?”
Going through a different rack of dresses behind us, Coop glanced over and grinned. “Nope. She’s perfect.”
Exasperated, I took the dress from Cheryl and held it up to me as I faced Coop. “Really?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Do they have it in green? It would match your eyes better.”
I did not roll my eyes.
“But this matches Bubba’s eyes, and he may not notice,” Cheryl argued, catching my arm to pull my gaze back to her. “Trust me, guys don’t notice it consciously when you do it, but their subconscious? It’s the perfect prey, it recognizes the colors, and then they’re drawn in by the symmetry.”
What the hell did that mean? It wasn’t in any psychology book I’d ever read. However… “Right color or not, I don’t wear skimpy dresses.”
“It’s not skimpy,” Cheryl said, her exasperation punching up each syllable. “Just add it to our rack there.”
Our rack.
Turning, I stared at the single rack the lady had brought out for us to hang our “selections” on, and when we were ready, she would wheel it to the changing room.
Over a dozen dresses already hung on it—for Cheryl. I’d hung precisely one before this one. A simple, straightforward, black cocktail dress Cheryl had given me a singular look of disgust followed by one of sympathy before she’d waved me on to hang it up.
Leaving her flicking through the racks, I carried the strapless dress over to hang it up.
“What do you think of this one?” Coop asked, holding up some tulle-infested nightmare of lace and satin. Despite his vain attempts to contain a smirk, his eyes practically danced with laughter.
“I think you’d look great in that,” I deadpanned.
He snorted, and Cheryl let out a giggle. “Oh, do we get to dress Coop up, too? Why didn’t you say so!”
“I’m good,” Coop said. “Let’s focus on Frankie.” Thankfully, he put the m
onstrosity away, and when Cheryl held her hand up for a high five, I gave it to her gratefully. “But seriously, what about this one?”
Ready to lampoon him for that dress again, I shut up as I turned to see him holding what looked like a two-piece outfit—a lacy high neck crop top and satin miniskirt. It was also in the deepest green. Although really pretty, that was a short skirt and the lacy top was kind of provocative.
He eyed the dress and then me.
“Oh, I like that,” Cheryl said. “Find it in blue, too.” She immediately dove into the racks with him. “We may have found your calling, Coop.” Biting my tongue, I drifted to another rack, even as Cheryl let out a whoop. “Royal blue. This will match Bubba’s eyes, right?”
“How the hell would I know?” Coop scoffed.
“Hang on, I have a picture, let me check…” Cheryl had a picture?
I stole a glance over as she whipped out her phone. Coop made a face, and I gave him a little smile. Dress shopping hadn’t been high on my list, especially after Ian disappeared that morning. Jake had gone after him, but I hadn’t heard from or seen either of them—until just after work when Jake sent me a text that everything was gonna be okay and happy hunting for a dress tonight.
Right up until then, I’d almost managed to make the mental block about the dress shopping. Coop waited for me by my apartment door when I got home, and he’d followed me inside. Thankfully, Mom wasn’t home and Coop kept it upbeat. He even fed the cats while I grabbed a shower. But even a half-hour of extremely invested making out couldn’t quite chase away the half-sick sensation left in the wake of Ian’s absence.
I’d texted him before I went to work. Then at lunch. I debated sending him one before we went out to get the dress and then decided against it. If he wanted to answer me, he would.
For the last forty-five minutes, it had been look at dresses and find some to try on. The price tags on them were not cheap. I found a rack with dresses that had longer skirts. The gold one was kind of pretty.
“No, Frankie. You need to work on your tan if you want to go for that. Too cold and pale. It will wash you out.”
Yeah, I didn’t ask, Cheryl. But I kept that comment to myself as I looked past the pink and the yellow. There was a pale, almost silvery blue that made me think of Jake.
I tugged it out and held it up to me. It would hit right at my ankles. There was a slit at the side, and the bodice had an illusion gap. It would look open almost to my navel but the sheer mesh would disguise it some.
“That’s not bad,” Cheryl commented as she breezed past me with three other dresses. “I’ll add it.” She snagged it out of my hands and then was on the move.
“It’s like watching a hurricane in action,” Coop said as he drifted over to where I searched.
“Kind of feels like one.” A force of nature. That description fit Cheryl to a T. “She had a picture of Ian?” I hadn’t meant to ask, I wasn’t going to ask. I was going to keep the inquiry to myself and yet…
“Yeah,” Coop said as he ran his hand over his hair then rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just from one of the parties over the summer.”
One of the parties. Cheryl had been at one of the parties.
Of course, she had. They’d all been at the parties. The guys invited everyone. I’d been invited. I just hadn’t gone. “Cool.”
“Frankie…”
Shifting away from the sympathy in his voice and his expression, I started wading through the rack again. A midnight purple mermaid dress caught my eye, and it was stunning.
Coop sighed. “That’s beautiful,” he said. “You’d look great in it. ‘Course, you’d pretty much look great in anything here.” He pretended to look around before he leaned close and whispered, “Even the cold and pale colors.”
The corner of my mouth tugged up. “Thanks, Coop.” I bumped his shoulder, and he hip checked me gently.
“Anytime. Want me to go add that to the rack?”
I blanched at the price tag. No way I could afford it. I mean, I could, but no way in hell was I spending that much.
“Come on,” Coop said, bumping her shoulder again. “Try it on. I bet it looks amazing.”
He’d been doing his best to be upbeat and cheerful, and all I’d done since I got home was sulk. Sucking it up, I held up the dress to myself again and glanced down. It really was gorgeous. “You know what…why not?” I didn’t have to buy it.
“That’s the spirit.” He snagged the dress and went to add it to our collection. Surely we had enough. But Cheryl made a shooing motion toward the rest of the area.
“We have to make sure we look at everything available. Go on.”
Turning away from her, I rolled my eyes. I didn’t want to look at everything available. There were dresses out the wazzoo in here. Animal print. Chiffon. Lace. Tulle. So. Much. Tulle.
Ballerinas didn’t use this much tulle.
I bypassed the animal print because I did not have the wherewithal to pull it off, for one. And for two—every single one seemed designed to be slinky and sexy. So not me.
Then again, I didn’t really know what was me. I owned very few dresses and spent less time than most of them worrying about it. At this point, I’d also worn both of my nice dresses—on dates with Archie—so that meant I had to get something different for Homecoming.
Okay.
I needed a dress. We had dresses everywhere. Surely something would work. I wandered away from where Cheryl currently plundered and made my way to a different set of racks—oh, clearance! Perfect. Even twenty-five percent off some of these prices would be better than nothing.
The colors varied from a plum wine spaghetti strapped dress that included two long slits to a deep fuchsia wrap dress. I skipped right past those and then hesitated on a midnight blue sequin midi dress. It had a slit, but most of the skirt hit about mid-calf and it had a halter top with a triangle in the center. It would show some boob but not a lot of it.
And it had no back whatsoever.
Huh.
A hand snagged it out of my grip, and Cheryl grinned. “Normally, I’d fuss at you for sneaking over here, but this is a steal and it’s gorgeous. I might have to fight you for it.” She tossed it over her arm with three others and headed for the rack.
Relentless.
And stealthy.
“Someone needs to put a bell on her,” Coop commented, and I grinned.
“Don’t be mean.”
“As if you weren’t thinking the same thing,” he charged, and then crossed his eyes. Laughing, I shook my head.
Because—well, yeah I had been thinking the same thing.
Still…
“Keep looking, Frankie,” Cheryl said as she breezed past. The effervescent cheer in her voice grated less as the first hour dragged into the second.
Uh oh.
She was wearing me down.
In the end, I had twenty-seven dresses to try on.
Twenty-seven.
Coop and I were never getting out of here.
I would apologize to him, but he’d been the one to insist we go when I wanted to bail in the first place.
“Divide and conquer,” Cheryl said. “We walk out in every dress. Coop, you are going to be the tie breaker if we can’t agree.”
“Oh. Joy. I was about to offer to get you ladies something to drink.”
“Nope.” Cheryl pointed him toward the puffy flat square seats. “Park it. You have to give us feedback.”
He shot me a look, and I shook my head. “You said this would be fun, remember?” If I had to suffer, then so did he.
There might have been a little bit of hate in his eyes when I said that. A very little bit. Cheryl turned away, and Coop and I both stuck our tongues out each other and shot the middle finger.
Chuckling, I felt better and pushed my way into the cubicle with its metric ton of dresses. We’d divided them by length and hung some behind the door and on each of the walls. I also had a large three-panel full-length mirror to see how I loo
ked in them.
Stripping out of my comfortable clothes, I debated which set of dresses to start with. Twenty-seven dresses.
Ugh.
There was a movie with that title and a couple of these reminded me of all of hers.
Blowing out a breath, I turned to my left and started with the short dresses. The first one—the strapless dress with the short skirt and the rusching—wouldn’t work with my bra, so I had to lose it too. I squeezed into the dress and did a little hop shimmy before zipping up the last bit.
It hugged every part of me.
I had towels that covered more real estate.
“C’mon,” Cheryl called. “Let’s see it. I absolutely hate mine.”
That boded well. After checking to make sure it actually covered my ass in the mirror, I sucked in my tummy and then opened the door. I made it two steps before I caught the snap of a camera phone.
When I glared at Coop, he just grinned. “And now my fun begins.”
Ass.
Still, I laughed as he cocked his head to the side and gave me a critical look. Trying to ignore the nervous flutters, I glanced at Cheryl and then did a double take.
“Um…”
“It’s fine,” the blonde admitted as she swept a hand down as though indicating the whole poofy—thing. Yeah, I didn’t have words for the dress. It was awful. “I hate it. It’s not even a contender, and our boy over there flinched. You, though…” She twirled her finger, and I sighed before doing a little pirouette. “Three-inch heels, pull your hair up, and get a nice choker, and girl, you would slay in that dress. The blue is really working for you.”
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