Keys and Kisses: Untouchable Book Three

by Long, Heather

“Dump away,” Rachel said without an ounce of sarcasm. “I meant it when I said you needed a friend. This right here…” She motioned to the ice cream and the snacks. “This is what friends do. You’re so locked in your head all the time. They’re the only people you talk to, and your feelings for them are complicated—are you supposed to talk to rich boy if shit for brains upsets you, or with dickhead and asshat?”

  “Really?”

  “Hey, I’m doing my best. My point is that when you start dating—friends isn’t always so easy to go back to. What happened when you guys fought in the past?”

  “Is it rude to ask if this has ever happened to you?”

  “Nope,” Rachel said before taking a mouthful of ice cream. “I’ve dated, sure. Never four people at once—that’s hot, by the way—and never dudes. First, gross. Second, everyone says girls are the emotional ones, but we’re just emotionally different.”

  “I don’t know, Coop’s got really great emotional availability.” I think that was the word. “He always seems to know what to say.”

  “To you,” Rachel added. “He knows you. He’s available to you. That whole cradle to grave thing you two have going on, it works for you. But back to me for a sec so I can answer your question. I dated a girl in junior year. You might remember her, Hannah?”

  I frowned. “Tall, dark hair, glasses…had an accent?”

  “She was from New England. Her parents moved down here when her dad got transferred. Anyway. She was a senior, good looking, funny as hell, and damn could she kiss.” Rachel paused, a slow smile creasing her lips.

  The depth of warmth and affection on her face pulled a smile to my lips. It was weird to see Rachel happy. The fact it was weird? Yeah, that said something. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who needed a friend.

  “Anyway, we hooked up like day three of junior year. I don’t to this day know what she saw in me, but it was awesome. She was my first, not that you asked.” She let out a little sigh, then seemed to shake herself. “But we were never friends. I didn’t realize that until right around Christmas when she was gone for three weeks. Didn’t call, didn’t text, didn’t email, and when she came back, it was like, pick up right where we left off and I’m all—wait, you ghost me, and suddenly, we’re still dating?”

  Another dollop of ice cream, and she stared out into the growing darkness. The sun had long since sunk on the horizon, but the lights scattered around the area left us with some illumination and fortunately attracted all the bugs away from us.

  “She didn’t get why I’d be upset. Told me I was being ridiculous. She’d been away with family. But now she was back and wanted to see me. The thing was…we did date and make out and do all that fun stuff, but it was different. It was like not seeing her all those weeks showed me what we didn’t have when we were together. She was hot. She could kiss like a goddess, and the things she could do with her tongue…”

  “Might be TMI,” I suggested, and Rachel threw me a wicked grin.

  “If it’s TMI, remind me to have a chat with your boys about what they are or aren’t doing with their tongues.”

  Oh. My. God.

  Pretty sure my face caught on fire, and I went icy hot and then laughter bubbled up. Putting a hand over my mouth I said, “They do great things with their tongues. Leave them alone.”

  Rachel threw her head back laughing and gave me a fist bump. I was still giggling, embarrassed and amused. Taking another bite of my ice cream, I tried to glare at her, but she kept laughing.

  Finally, after wiping some tears from her eyes, she said with a big grin on her face, “Anyway… Hannah and I didn’t work out. The more I realized it was just sex and just kissing and just a little bit of fun…the more I realized I wanted something else. I also had a crush on this other girl who does not go to our school. Her name was Reese. She and I had been friends for a long time. You know, the kind you can call up and whether it’s been two minutes or two months, you just pick right up where you left off?”

  “Yeah.” I had that with the guys. After the summer, and when Coop decided he wasn’t letting me wander away, and they all made a concerted effort. It hadn’t been hard at all, even as I struggled with everything else, I wanted it to work.

  “Reese was—a lot of work. She’s more bi than lesbian. That’s okay. I’m not that picky. I’m not bi, but I don’t mind it.” She waved her hand before scraping down to the last bit of the pint. “We could talk about anything and everything. We did. It was—everything Hannah and I couldn’t be. Reese and I were great, except she started liking this other guy and liked him a lot.”

  “Oh, Rach…”

  She shrugged. “No, it was all right. At least she told me, you know? I didn’t find out. She just said she really liked him, and she wanted to go out with him, he’d asked her. And did I mind? You know, I really did mind. I didn’t want to share. I didn’t want to compete. So, I told her if she wanted to date him, it was okay with me. We could go back to being friends. I didn’t want to be the person making her stay where she didn’t want to be or hold her back.”

  That I got. Reaching across the table, I clasped her hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “You know the break up wasn’t the hard part—it was talking to her after that sucked. Remember how I said we could talk about anything? Two minutes or two months?” At my nod, she squeezed my hand. “That went away. It was just awkward as fuck, and eventually, I stopped calling her and she stopped calling me. I see her now and again, but…it’s not the same.”

  “That was right before the spring dance.”

  “Yep, and then in my great and profound wisdom, I decided that you should know why no one asked. I suppose I could have kicked a puppy. That might have been kinder.”

  Now I rolled my eyes. “Regretting telling me already?”

  “Regretting that sometimes I am too blunt and too harsh. That I say what I think, and it doesn’t always work out. Then, I think about biting my tongue, and I don’t.” She had the last spoonful of her ice cream. “Because it hurts.”

  I chuckled.

  “So after that long story, my only advice is that—you might not be able to go back to how it was. You’ve changed. They’ve changed. How you see each other and the potential you see…it’s always going to be there.”

  My shoulders sagged, and I bit into another yogurt-covered pretzel dipped in the leftover melt of the ice cream.

  “Then again, you five are weird,” Rachel offered. “Maybe you can figure it out.”

  “I’m worried because the guys are fighting now, and I don’t want them to fight over me. They were plotting to get rid of Mathieu when they just thought I was dating him, and then…I asked them what would happen if they wanted to get rid of each other. All I wanted was to date and do the things all the other girls were doing.” To be a real teen instead the girl with the flakey mom who sleeps around and has had to look after myself for years. “Did I mess all this up?”

  “I think yes, and I think no.”

  I stared at her for a beat. “Well, thank you for clearing that up for me.”

  “What I mean is,” Rachel said making a face. “That maybe you haven’t handled it the best, but you told them how you felt. You’ve been honest since the beginning, right?”

  I nodded. “We even kind of plan date nights and stuff when we’re all together, so everyone knows when I’m going out with one of the others…”

  Rule number two.

  That was what Jake meant. They knew when I was out with one of them, and they weren’t supposed to interfere.

  Ugh. They made rules? I wasn’t sure if that was cute or irritating.

  Or maybe just thoughtful.

  “Then, I think you did that right. I think you have to be true to you. You have to ask yourself, are you dating all of them as a unit or individually? And do you want to continue if one or more of them doesn’t?”

  The thought of losing one of them made me want to cry, and I’d broken up with Ian. Me. I’d taken that decision out of his han
ds. The thought of losing all of them?

  No. That was just too damn bleak.

  “You don’t have to decide right now,” Rachel said. “Just something to think about.”

  “Yeah.”

  We both sighed.

  “Well…are you dating anyone now?” I asked.

  She grinned. “No. But I have my eye on someone—not you. I know. I’m not your type. So we have very clear boundaries.”

  I laughed. “I thought you didn’t like boundaries.”

  “Never have been a fan,” she agreed.

  We sat out there for another hour, talking about everything and nothing. By the time we cleaned up our trash and headed back to the cars, I felt—while not better—at least a little less stressed.

  When she offered a hug, I returned it. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime,” she whispered. “I’ve got your back.”

  Then she was in her car, and I was in mine.

  My phone had been very quiet since I texted the guys earlier. I sent a text to Jake that I was heading home, and I hadn’t even put the phone down when he replied.

  Jake: OMW

  Thirty minutes later, I’d just changed into PJs when the knock hit my door. The cats were put out with me for having been gone for so long, but I ignored them as I hurried to answer.

  Jake surged inside as soon as I opened it, and I wrapped around him tightly. “Oh, your face…”

  “Trust me,” he said. “I don’t even feel it.” Then he was kissing me, and we had to get the door closed and locked.

  Even being careful, it was hard not to put my hands on something bruised on him as we made it to my room and stripped out of our clothes. We needed to talk, and we would.

  But right now, I didn’t need words, and neither did Jake.

  Chapter Twelve

  We Might As Well Be Strangers

  Archie

  Me: My place. 30 minutes. No excuses.

  No one argued with the text. Now, sitting around the outdoor table overlooking the pool with food spread out in front of us, no one said a word. The only one actually eating was Jake, he had torn right through one burger and into the second before he began to slow.

  Coop sipped his soda and watched him eat with his eyebrows raised. No missing the concern there—or the fact Coop had taken the chair next to Bubba’s. The fact that I could barely look at Bubba without getting pissed off didn’t bode well for this conversation.

  Still, we needed to have it.

  Now, maybe more than ever.

  Cracking open a beer, I took a long drink and gave them all another minute. Personally, I didn’t want Jake to be responsible for choking. The only good part of this particular moment, Frankie was somewhere else having a girl’s night with Rachel.

  I couldn’t stand the bitch, but she’d been nice to Frankie. Maybe too nice. But right this moment, Frankie needed nice. One thing going for Rachel, none of us had dated her.

  Yay.

  “Look,” Bubba said, breaking the silence as he leaned forward. Jake stilled and laser focused on him so hard, I braced. If he launched at Bubba over this table, it was going to be hell to separate them. Like Jake, Bubba’s face was a mass of bruises. His right eye was a pitch perfect black and purple bruise that looked like it hurt.

  Call me petty, but I didn’t mind that part. Mine had only just faded from where Bubba slugged me, but it was still tender. What bugged me was they’d beaten the shit out of each other. Not like we hadn’t had our share of scraps over the years. This was different.

  This was fighting over Frankie.

  For real fighting.

  “You’re all pissed at me,” Bubba said after a protracted silence.

  “Great revelation,” Jake retorted, his tone dry. “Did it take you all day to get there?”

  The two glared at each other. “Fuck you, Jake.”

  “Right back at you.”

  “Stop,” Coop said, his quiet voice slicing between them as both looked at Coop. Our peacemaker. Frankie called him zen, and I used to tease him he was Valium. He had a way of going with the flow and sanding down the rough edges. It was a mistake to think his laid-back demeanor meant he didn’t care or didn’t lose his temper.

  Cause he sure as hell did, especially where it concerned Frankie. Jake might be overly protective, and Bubba the golden child and solid backup. I had my own plays, but Coop? No one ever saw him coming.

  “If you want to whip those dicks out, I’ll go get the tape measure. Otherwise, knock it off.” The mild tone didn’t match the cool look in his eyes. “But we’ve all had a shit day, some more that others.” He flicked a look at Jake before he lifted his soda. “So keep it civil and remember why we’re here.”

  Bubba sighed. “I told her, okay? I told her about the points.”

  “She told us,” I said with a shrug I definitely didn’t feel. “What I want to know is why you told her. What the hell did you think that would accomplish? It’s not like you were the innocent choirboy we dragged into the game, Bubba. You were right there with us. Every. Step. Of. The. Way.” The last five words came out with a punch of breath as I wrestled with my own temper.

  Suddenly, I wanted to punch him in his perfect teeth. Bubba had the good family. The perfect school record. The jock status. And he’d asked her to Homecoming while the rest of us scrambled around with our dicks in our hands. Then he tells her something that couldn’t do anything other than hurt her.

  Maybe I should have cracked open the liquor cabinet. Jeremy wasn’t a fan of when I got into it. The beer, he could overlook. The occasional bottle of wine, he didn’t mind. But the hard liquor? Not on his watch. Not usually.

  “No, I brought Sharon into the game.”

  “She wasn’t the only one you brought, either. If you want, I can get the playbook with the specifics.” I still had the damn thing. The little side bets we’d placed. The scores we’d kept. It started as a joke, a half-assed thing while I was in the hospital right at the top of summer. The emergency appy had fucking sucked.

  The idea though? It had been funny.

  Then it had been fun. A little dirty. A little challenging.

  Worth the laughs to fill the hours because there was a Frankie-shaped hole in our lives.

  We’d tagged different girls with different equations for scoring points. That last party…

  I shook my head. Yeah, that last party had been a race to the finish line in more ways than one, and I’d half-forgotten it by the next morning and shoved it all the way out of my mind the minute Frankie had arrived in the cafeteria.

  Everything clicked, back where it belonged, and I didn’t need the game. Didn’t care about it. Yesterday’s news.

  Only it wasn’t…

  Not anymore.

  “No, Arch, I know who I brought in. I can list every BJ I got and every girl I got out of her clothes before you did, too.” Or Jake. Or Coop.

  That was the point.

  Last man got the fewest points.

  “Why did you tell her?” Jake rasped. “You told me what your dad said, about how she seemed abused…”

  Fuck her mom. That opened a whole other avenue for my temper. Fuck her. Fuck Edward.

  For that matter, fuck Muriel, too.

  Selfish assholes. Every. Single. One.

  “…so why tell her that? She’s already getting shit from the Bitch Pack. Her mother is…a fucking piece of work, and no offense, Arch, but your dad can go suck a dick.”

  “Agreed,” I said, and held the beer bottle out. He tapped his drink to mine before he took a swig. One beer, he’d said. His face hurt, and he was having one beer. But his phone was on the table in front of him. As soon as Frankie texted, he was out of here. He’d made that clear, and he wanted to be sober to drive.

  Bubba sighed. “I told her because we keep lying to her. All of us. I don’t want to be that guy. I told her because you guys were going after her the same way you did Maria… Patty… Ch—“

  “First,” Jake interrupted. “Fuc
k you. We did not treat her like a goddamn point. Ever. Second, fuck you twice for thinking we would…”

  I put a hand on his shoulder because violence lashed every word, but Bubba didn’t back down from it.

  “Sure, except I asked her to Homecoming first because I knew what you assholes would do, so…guess that made me an asshole, too.”

  “And telling her, what? That makes you not an asshole?” Jake dared him.

  “No,” Bubba sighed, and shook his head. “It makes me worse.”

  “Bubba,” Coop said before Jake or I could say anything else. “What did you hope to accomplish? Break all of us up? Look better to her? Sink all of us? What?”

  That was a damn good question. Bubba stared at Coop. “We talked about this.”

  “Yeah,” Coop said, his tone still mild and relaxed. “We did. They didn’t. I think they need to hear it. Because on the surface, it looks like you wanted to stab all of us in the back because you were jealous.”

  Coop was not wrong.

  “I don—” Bubba edited himself with a grimace, then drained his soda before he shoved his chair back and stood. There was no mistaking the wince as he turned away, then dropped his can in the recycle bin before pulling out another cold one. “I wanted a clean slate. I wanted her to know the whole score—no pun intended—because I don’t think she understands all of this.”

  “All of what?” I asked. “Us? Sex? Dating? Life?”

  Turning, Bubba faced me and focused on me. Fine. Bring it. “You fucked her, Arch.”

  “I was there,” I said without an ounce of repentance in me. “You’re not going to make me feel bad for that.” It had been beautiful. It still was. I couldn’t wait to be with her again. Most of the girls had bored the shit out of me.

  Frankie was not most girls.

  “So did Jake.”

  “Careful, Bubba, Coop’s right—your jealousy is showing.” He crumpled the paper that had wrapped his burger and shoved it in the bag before he took another swig of beer.

  When he looked at Coop, I waited to see where the hell he was going with this. “You came close—I’m pretty sure, even if you won’t admit it.”