Changes and Chocolates: Untouchable Book Two Read online

  Changes and Chocolates

  Untouchable Book Two

  Heather Long

  Copyright © 2019 by Heather Long

  Proofing: Meghan Leigh Daigle

  Cover: Crimson Phoenix Designs

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Changes and Chocolates

  Foreward & Dedication

  Show of Hands

  1. Chapter One

  2. Chapter Two

  3. Chapter Three

  Fightin’ Words

  4. Chapter Four

  5. Chapter Five

  Afterboom

  6. Chapter Six

  7. Chapter Seven

  8. Chapter Eight

  9. Chapter Nine

  10. Chapter Ten

  Hanging by a Moment

  11. Chapter Eleven

  12. Chapter Twelve

  13. Chapter Thirteen

  14. Chapter Fourteen

  15. Chapter Fifteen

  Take Our Time

  16. Chapter Sixteen

  17. Chapter Seventeen

  18. Chapter Eighteen

  19. Chapter Nineteen

  20. Chapter Twenty

  21. Chapter Twenty-One

  22. Chapter Twenty-Two

  23. Chapter Twenty-Three

  About Heather Long

  Also by Heather Long

  Changes and Chocolates

  Untouchable Book 2

  170 some odd days left in my senior year and everything has changed. I went from untouchable to dating my best friends to making out to being betrayed. Why can’t they understand humiliating and controlling me doesn’t say I care?

  Could this get any worse?

  We’ve all crossed lines. Broken the rules.

  Ian had asked me to Homecoming.

  Jake spent the night in my bed.

  Coop and I had made out on the sofa.

  But Archie? Archie and I had blown past all of them.

  Now?

  I had to get out of here more than ever. Change was inevitable. College was coming. That was where my focus needed to be. Not on the four guys I adored. Our friendship was everything and there wasn’t enough chocolate in the world to salvage this situation.

  Losing them for a few months hurt.

  Losing them forever might be inevitable, but it would be unbearable.

  Foreward & Dedication

  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.

  Like the first book, 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.

  This book wouldn’t be complete without the enormous support of Blake Blessing and Rebecca Royce. They’ve been tremendous as cheerleaders, 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.

  Also a huge hats off to the readers who’ve left reviews or reached out to me or recommended Rules and Roses, you’re the best and I adore you!

  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 second book in a series. If you haven’t read Rules and Roses, I encourage you to pause here and go grab it. 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!

  Show of Hands

  Archie: We need to talk.

  Jake: Now we need to talk? You’ve been dead

  quiet since yesterday.

  Bubba: Worse, you took off with Frankie.

  Nothing. No word.

  Archie: Are you done?

  Bubba: Hardly. Frankie isn’t answering either.

  Coop: What did you do?

  Jake: I’m with Coop. What did you do?

  Archie: Told Frankie about the

  plan for Frenchy.

  Jake: …

  Coop: Oh FFS

  Bubba: I told you guys to leave it alone.

  Archie: Bite me. It’s bad enough about

  her mom, we don’t need the French guy.

  Jake: She’s all right, isn’t she?

  Archie: Not really.

  Coop: …

  Jake: …

  Bubba: Explain.

  Archie: She spent the night.

  We talked. It was good.

  Told me she wasn’t going to see

  Frenchy anymore. Done deal.

  Coop: ...

  Archie: Was relieved. Told her

  we didn’t have to do the thing.

  Jake: …

  Bubba: You have to be kidding me.

  Archie: She was fine. But… that

  pissed her off.

  Jake: …

  Coop: …

  Bubba: I told you to leave it alone.

  Archie: Fuck you, Bubba.

  I was going for honesty

  Jake: …

  Coop: I’m still back at she spent the night.

  Jake: Where is she now?

  Archie: Home.

  Bubba: Where are you?

  Archie: Not there, she threw me out.

  Jake: …

  Coop: She’s ignoring my messages.

  Jake: And mine.

  Bubba: Archie—you’re a jackass.

  Archie: This isn’t done.

  And see above on the fuck you

  if you can’t help.

  Coop: Now you want our help?

  Jake: …

  Bubba: If she won’t answer, we go to Mason’s.

  Jake: She hates that.

  Coop: She really does

  Bubba: I know, but it’s harder

  for her to ignore us there.

  Archie: Shit. Edward’s back.

  Jake: She with him?

  Archie: Yeah. Jeremy said they’d be gone before

  party.

  Coop: We should tell her.

  Bubba: That won’t help. I wish I didn’t know.

  Jake: Too late now.

  Archie: I’m aware.

  Jake: You’re going to be in pain too.

  Coop: Cause that helps.

  Bubba: Stop. Frankie first.

  Coop: Agreed. I’ll go by her place.

  Bubba: Don’t. If she isn’t answering

  the phone, it’ll just be cornering her

  at the door.

  Archie: So what? We wait?

  Bubba: I was thinking grovel.

  Jake: Yeah. Archie first.

  Archie: Go to hell, Jake.

&
nbsp; Jake: Again, you first.

  Bubba: Stop it. Both of you.

  Coop: We broke it. We fix it.

  Jake: …

  Archie: … fine, who’s picking up Coop?

  Chapter One

  Super Cool Party People

  Mom’s new boyfriend was Archie’s dad. Archie’s married dad. The guys knew. Had known. I—I couldn’t deal with this.

  “Wait,” Archie said, tightening his arms around me. He pitched his voice low, probably a good plan to keep it from carrying out to the pair still locked together below.

  Acid churned in my gut, and I think I threw up a little in my mouth. As much as I wanted to storm out, I didn’t dare draw attention to myself. Not if it meant I had to talk to Mom right now in front of all of them.

  The fact they’d known was bad enough.

  My legs wobbled, and if not for Archie, I probably would have landed on my ass. As it was, I pushed away from him and crossed to one of the chairs they’d abandoned. They were farther back, invisible from below. There were four open beers on the table.

  Well, good to know they started the party early.

  Grabbing one, I took a long pull from it and grimaced.

  That was so foul.

  “Easy,” Jake said as he crouched next to me. When he put a hand on my leg, I jerked my knee away, and he lifted his hands in surrender. One by one, the others sat down, and I tipped the bottle up and drained the rest of it, then shook my head at the horrible taste.

  “Are they gone?”

  Archie was the only one not sitting or crouching. He glanced over his shoulder, then back at me. “Almost.”

  “You knew.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Caught them last week,” he admitted.

  Last week.

  Caught them?

  “That’s why you weren’t at school on Monday.” I wiped the back of my hand against my mouth. The air was still cool, even if the sun was warm. The covered deck added to the chill racing over me. Had to explain the goosebumps somehow.

  “Pretty much,” Archie admitted.

  “And when did you tell everyone else?”

  Coop sighed. “Tuesday—when you were at lunch with Mathieu.”

  Okay. That fit.

  My mom was having an affair with Archie’s dad.

  She wasn’t out of town at all.

  “Your parents were supposed to be out of town.”

  “Yeah well, not the first time Edward and Muriel made different plans.” Archie crossed over to a small outdoor bucket I hadn’t noticed. He pulled out a bottle of wine.

  It looked pretty familiar, and heat scorched through me.

  It was the same kind we’d had the night before. He retrieved a glass and carried it over.

  “If you’re going to drink, drink something you like. And give me your keys.”

  Ian had said nothing; he just sat forward, elbows on his thighs and hands clasped together as he stared at me. When I caught his gaze, he gave me a small smile. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you.” I’d gone to his place on Tuesday. We’d…made out in the pool. “I didn’t tell you later because—Frankie I have no idea how to tell you something like that about your mom.”

  Bottle open, Archie filled the glass halfway and held out the wine. “Keys.”

  If I took the wine, I was staying.

  If I stood up right now, I could just leave.

  “I know you’re mad,” Jake said quietly. “You can be as pissed at us as you want to be. We deserve it. But stay… we can cancel the stupid party. Just don’t go away angry and having to choke on this.”

  “We’re still your friends,” Coop added. “Maybe not the best of friends right now, but we’re yours, and you shouldn’t be alone.”

  “For what it’s worth,” Archie said. “I got really blitzed, and I was hungover as fuck on Monday. I knew Edward was cheating. It’s not like it’s new. He’s a serial cheater. But Muriel puts up with it. They left together. He came back alone, took a different bag and left again.”

  Mom had been dating for months. The whole time, I hadn’t been talking to the guys. I stared at the wine glass for a beat longer. Shifting in the seat, I dug my keys out of my pocket and handed them to Coop. The corners of Archie’s mouth tightened, but he gave me the wine.

  “It’s a little late to cancel the party,” Archie said as he grabbed a fresh beer out of the bucket and popped the cap. “But the fact we’re having it means they’ll go, so it’ll at least be a safe space here.”

  “I’m not sleeping in the pool house.” The thought made my skin crawl.

  “No problem,” Archie said. “You can have my room.”

  “Hey,” Ian said.

  “I said she could have my room,” Archie told him. “Not that I’d be in there with her. Course,” he continued, glancing back at me. “That’s entirely up to you.”

  My stomach bottomed out, and I took another swallow of wine. It was sweet, but more, it seemed to help calm down my jangling nerves. “You only found out last weekend?” Did I have that right?

  “Yeah,” Archie said. “I knew he had another—one.” One was not the word he’d planned to use. He was editing himself for me. “But I didn’t know it was her, Frankie. Bubba’s right, I didn’t know how to tell you.”

  But they’d all been so keenly aware of Mom’s absence.

  I scrubbed a hand over my face, and Jake tried again, this time just touching my arm. “Can I just hold you for a minute?”

  The request floored me. Was he serious?

  “Why?”

  “Why?” He raised his eyebrows. “Because you just took your second sucker punch of the day—and I was part of one of them. You need a hug.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, that was what Marsha said.”

  “Her boss,” Coop said, probably answering Ian or Archie, but I didn’t look away from Jake. His pale blue eyes implored me to believe him, and the damn thing was, I wanted to believe all of them. But how was I supposed to do that? Really?

  “This sucks.”

  “Yeah,” Ian and Coop exhaled almost on the same breath.

  “That’s a word for it.” Archie cut his gaze to Jake, and so did I.

  “Okay,” I told him and stood. When I set my glass on the table, he surged upward. He took the chair, and when I settled in his lap, he wrapped his arms around me. It was nice, and I sighed as I leaned my head against his. “Are they gone yet?”

  Archie pulled out his phone and sent something. A minute later, his phone vibrated. “Jeremy says they’ve left.”

  I blew out a breath.

  Jeremy knew.

  This was… “I don’t even know what to do with this.”

  “You don’t have to do anything,” Archie told me. “This isn’t on you. It’s on them.”

  That sounded a whole lot simpler than it was.

  “Frankie,” Ian said, drawing my attention to him. “You were right—you’re worth a lot more than having us make some plan to get rid of a guy you liked. I’m not going to defend it. But…”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “But hear me out this time?”

  I nodded as Jake gave me a light squeeze. Since I was sitting with my back to his chest, his hands were over my abdomen, and I had mine resting on his. What had been nice a moment earlier set my nerves jangling. What was I doing?

  “We like you. All of us.” There was a small round of nods, and there was something absolutely unsettling about having this conversation with all four of them. “A lot,” Ian continued. “But we don’t want you to date someone else if you’re dating us.”

  Us.

  “Plural? All of you, plural?”

  “Told you, Frankie,” Coop said gently. “We like you.”

  “What happens if you decide you don’t want me to date anyone but one of you?” I locked gazes with Archie though, because Jake was behind me. Last night, Archie and I had crossed and then torched the line between friends and what—lovers? Did we qualify as that? The bracelet on my wrist su
ddenly took on a whole new weight.

  The silence was telling as the guys glanced at each other, and then Archie shrugged. “It’s not a problem yet.”

  Yet.

  I tapped Jake’s hands, and he loosened his grip. It took me a minute to stand, and the wine I’d drunk along with the beer had already gone straight to my head, but I didn’t stagger. I needed the distance.

  “Hey…” Jake said, catching my hand, but I pulled free. “It’s not a problem. We argue. Some of us do stupid shit.” He glared at Archie. “But we all agree on one thing.”