The Kindred Soul of Nora Faye: The Tethered Soul Series, Book 3 Read online

  The Kindred Soul of Nora Faye

  Laura C. Reden

  The Kindred Soul of Nora Faye:

  The Tethered Soul Series, Book 3

  Copyright © 2021 by Laura C. Reden

  Ebook: ISBN 978-1-954587-01-4

  Paperback: ISBN 978-1-954587-14-4

  Hardback: ISBN 978-1-954587-27-4

  Edited by Paige Lawson

  Cover designed by Laura C. Reden

  Cover Images:

  © Adobe Stock / paulrommer

  © Adobe Stock / Fernando Batista

  © Adobe Stock / alexlibris

  © Adobe Stock / htoto911

  © Adobe Stock / svaga

  Copyright © 2021 by Laura C. Reden

  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

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Thank You

  Also by Laura C. Reden

  About the Author

  The Kindred Soul of Nora Faye

  Chapter 1

  I was going to live forever. It could have been a gift, or maybe a curse. I didn’t know. But it was my second chance at life, and I intended to make the best of it. I never expected it would have turned out the way it did. This is the story of how my first life should have gone; and maybe then, I never would have been a Tethered Soul.

  Every inch of my skin was sun kissed. My spirit sailed into the summer air as my body grew heavier in the poolside lounge chair. Without opening my eyes, I reached for the sweet Mai Tai, bringing the straw to my lips. The drink washed down my throat and settled like ice in the bottom of my empty stomach. I rolled the straw between my teeth before drawing another sip. A soft moan escaped me, and my lips curved upward ever so slightly. This was living alright. If I could do this every so often, I would surely die a happy girl.

  “Why do we wait for someone to get married to celebrate like this?” Brooklyn asked from the lounge beside me.

  “I don’t know. We should do this all the time.”

  “Let’s do that.”

  “Uh, huh.”

  “Promise? You’re not going to get married and forget about me or turn old and grumpy . . .” Brooklyn asked.

  “What? Who do you think I am?” I forced my eyes open to look at her. The sunlight ricocheted off her oil-slick skin, nearly blinding me. She was starting to burn.

  “Well, you know. People who get married stop hanging out with their friends and stuff. They get boring when they slip into a rut.”

  I sat up and reached for the sunscreen. “I’m not going to be like that. We’re going to do this all the time. That’s a promise.”

  “Good,” Brooklyn mumbled.

  “Now, you should probably put more of this sunscreen on; you're turning pink.” Brooklyn lifted her sunglasses and peeked at her torso, then shrugged, waving me off. I finished the rest of my Mai Tai, the straw slurping the fine drops of liquid between the ice.

  “Another round.” It wasn’t a question. Neither she nor I wanted this feeling to fade. I couldn’t imagine a better bachelorette party. I told Brooklyn I just wanted to relax, and she booked a weekend away at a winery. We had massages scheduled, manicures, pedicures, wine tasting, you name it. If it was under the umbrella of pampering, we were doing it. However, I would be hard-pressed to leave this lounge chair in my current state.

  When the sun’s rays became too hot against my skin, I rolled to my stomach, draping my arm over the lounge. My knuckles lay against the cool concrete in the shade of my chair. “Hey, Brooklyn?”

  “. . . Huh?”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell Easton that you were tethered?”

  A stint of silence stretched between us for so long I thought she might have fallen asleep. “Because I don’t tell anyone.”

  “But, you told me?” I pressed.

  “Well, that’s different. I had to tell you. And you're my best friend, so there’s that.”

  “Huh. True,” I murmured. “Wait, why, though?”

  “Why what? I need the server. Have you seen her?” Brooklyn asked, sitting up.

  “No, I’m face down. I have seen nothing but my shadow. Why did you have to tell me?” I pressed.

  There was a loud sigh, and I could tell I was killing her buzz. “Excuse me? Hi, can we get more of these?” Ice rattled as Brooklyn shook her drink back and forth. “And, do you want anything else?”

  “Fries! Can we get some fries? Or, oh, chicken tenders! With ranch dressing!” I blurted my order out in fragments, the only way my brain was processing.

  “Good call. Two of those, please,” Brooklyn said.

  I stood unsteadily and lifted the back of my lounge chair to a seated position. I fixed my towel, dancing as my feet burned on the cement, and sat back down as quickly as possible. My eyes adjusted to the sunlight once again and settled on a lady swimming laps in the long rectangular pool before us. “I don’t want to die again.” The scattered thoughts escaped my lips.

  “Honey, we get to live forever. Just as long as you remember the plan, that is,” Brooklyn said. I nodded, though I was sure her eyes were closed, and she couldn’t see me.

  “I remember,” I said, thinking back to the day of James’s funeral. Brooklyn had sent Easton away to tell me of a dream she had. I was accustomed to her dreams. I had heard about them all the time, and after the first few came true, I hadn’t questioned them again. I never wanted to move to the small town of Clover, but when Brooklyn woke with a dream that my future would be found at Norton University, I couldn’t refuse. You can’t change fate, she always said. And that was true until she formed the plan. A plan to get around fate. “I know you didn’t tell Easton that you were Tethered, but you told him about your dream?” I asked, my recollection fuzzy. It was nearly a year ago, and I had a lot going on at the time, with my memory coming back to me in fragments that would shatter my reality. I adjusted finally, but it took time.

  “Yeah, I told him about the dream. He couldn’t care less.” Brooklyn waived her hand through the air dismissively.

  “Really? He didn’t care?” My brows stitched, and I pried my eyes off the woman doing laps to look at Brooklyn. She was surely burnt now. The pink in her skin turned to red honeycombs across her legs.

  “Either he knows you’re going to die and doesn't care, or he thinks I’m a quack,” Brooklyn said. Eyes gazing down the bridge of her nose as she lowered her sunglasses.

  “Huh?” My jaw fell open, the alcohol hindering its closure.

  “Don’t get me wrong . . . He loves you; he really does. I don’t doubt that for a second. But, I don’t think he knows the half of it.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I mean, he really hasn’t lived that long.”

  “Oh. Yeah . . . I have a lot to
learn, too, I guess,” I said, the weight settling down on my shoulders. I was still new, only on my second life. I might as well have been an infant.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back,” Brooklyn said. And I knew it to be true; she’d never steered me wrong. She had been there for me through thick and thin, and her dreams had been a beacon of light for us both. It wasn’t until I came to her crying after I had seen the plaque on the bridge–riddled with confusion and distrust–that she told me she too was a Tethered Soul, and that was the reason she’d been drawn to me in the first place. She said my energy was a little brighter than others, the depth somewhat twisted. Whatever that meant. I hadn’t seen the things that she and Easton spoke of. Except for the fairy lights I had witnessed in the clearing the day he proposed. Apparently, it took time to open one’s senses to the other intangibles and invisible fields of emotion and energy. It all seemed weird to me, but then again, so did having a former life.

  Chicken tenders and greasy fries came from the heavens above, and I dug in as if I hadn’t eaten in a week. It surely felt like it. I became famished the second the first fry graced my tongue. The Mai Tai in the pit of my stomach soaked into french fries and ranch dressing, making for the most joyous of gatherings. If I thought I was happy an hour ago, well, I’d be wrong because there was a new standard now, and it included fried food. “It doesn't get better than this,” I said.

  “Just wait, it will,” Brooklyn said with a mischievous glow.

  A broad smile spread across my face. “You're right! We have massages!” I shimmied my shoulders to the beat of my jaw chewing. Brooklyn giggled, and I looked over in time to see her tilt her head to the side and shrug. She was leading on to something else, something I didn’t know about. I didn’t pry. Surprises were best served shaken with a dash of shock.

  We finished our lunch by the side of the pool, and by the time I finally stood, I nearly fell backward onto my lounge chair. Brooklyn laughed, and I grabbed onto her arm for support while we strolled back to our room. She could have been more supportive if she had stopped swaying herself. We stomped through the bushes every now and again as we veered off the path, and each time we would blame the other. When we finally approached the four villas at the end of the path, Brooklyn fumbled with the keycard, trying to unlock our door to no avail. “Hurry up. I have to pee,” I whined.

  “It won’t open!” Brooklyn jiggled the door.

  “It’s upside down!” I took the card from her and slipped it in what I was sure to be the correct way, but it didn’t open.

  “Wait, what room are we?” Brooklyn asked while glancing at her watch.

  “We’re thirty-one.” I looked up to the door, and the numbers flickered in and out of focus. “Does that say thirty-one? Or thirteen?” I asked.

  Brooklyn laughed, checking a message on her watch before grabbing my arm and pulling me forward. “Come on, I think we're in the wrong section. Our villa is on the other side of the winery.”

  “No!”

  “Yes!”

  “I’m going to pee my pants!” I claimed.

  “You should have done that in the pool, my friend. Now let’s go. We can’t be late!” We trudged on for what seemed like a small eternity through grape vines and red roses. When we approached, the villa marked thirty-one—for the second time—our door unlocked with ease. I ran straight for the bathroom.

  “Surprise!” screamed from within the restroom. I jumped, startled by the group of girls packed like sardines behind the door.

  “What! What are you guys doing here?” I said, my hips swaying from side to side as they took turns in giving me a hug. Audrey, Terra, Grace, and Kennedy had all flown in a week early to celebrate with me, and to say I was shocked was an understatement. And then there was Payton, who came even though she slept with my boyfriend on my birthday. It had been many apologies later, but despite the regret she expressed and the full year that had passed, I still didn’t trust her. And that would never change. But somehow, through the death of James, and the friendship of Brooklyn, we all remained friends . . . of sorts.

  I danced my way to the toilet while the girls filed out of the bathroom, closing the door behind them. “We wanted to surprise you!” They yelled.

  “Did you know?”

  “Yeah, were you surprised?”

  I washed my hands under the cold water, the sunscreen turning the sink water milky. I looked at myself in the mirror, my eye liner pooling under my eyes. Good god! I had to pull myself together! Fast! I was happy my friends were here; it just wasn’t the surprise I’d imagined. With this crowd, I would have to kiss my weekend of relaxation away. It was a shift in mindset that I wasn’t prepared for and was struggling with as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I wiped under my eyes, smearing the liner as I opened the door to several expecting eyes. “I had no idea! You guys totally got me!” I said.

  The girls squealed in delight, and another round of hugs began. “We have twenty minutes until our massages, let’s start heading that way,” Brooklyn said, managing our time by her watch. Her eyes must be more in focus than mine, and I wondered if she had drunk as much as I did by the pool. Then, I suspected that she had taken me to the wrong villa on purpose. I narrowed my eyes at her, and she returned my gaze with a mischievous smile. Brooklyn was always full of surprises. Right when I thought I knew her, she always did something I found shocking.

  “You guys have massages too?” I asked.

  “Yeah! We’re not missing out on any of the fun!”

  “I’m getting a Swedish massage.”

  “I’m getting the hot stone one.”

  “I don’t know what I’m getting; I just picked the one I couldn’t pronounce,” Grace said. We all laughed as we left the villa.

  “That’s our room,” Kennedy said, pointing to the villa next door.

  “Yeah, and that’s Audrey’s and mine,” said Terra.

  Brooklyn swung her arm around my shoulders. “Payton is rooming with us this weekend,” she said. I forced a smile. Several conversations were happening simultaneously, and my focus bounced back and forth between them like a pinball machine, never landing long enough to grasp the entire topic at hand. After trying and failing, I defaulted to taking in the view of the gardens as we passed by. The chatter passing in one ear and out the other.

  Audrey opened the door, and the girls filed in. The scent of lavender washed over my senses, and the sound of trickling water came from various corners of the spa. The air conditioning felt nice on my warm cheeks, and I knew then I’d be falling asleep the second I laid on that massage table.

  “Oh, you got some sun!” Brooklyn said, pointing to me.

  I turned to her, shocked to see how red she appeared under the artificial light. “Me? You should see you!” I said, laughing. Kennedy and Terra laughed, agreeing with Brooklyn that I was far more burnt than she. If it were true, I’d be in trouble. Brooklyn checked us all in while I perused around the spa boutique picking up tiny purple gems and opening jars of mud that smelled like green tea. And before we knew it, we were handed robes and sandals and shown to the changing rooms. I picked a locker with the number three on it for the best chance at me actually remembering where I had stashed my clothes. Fifty-three. It shouldn’t be that hard.

  “Oh my god, Becca! You are so burnt!” Terra said. I looked down to where my swimsuit had shifted lower on my hips, and a stark white band wrapped around my body like a belt. My eyes grew as I rushed to the full-length mirror.

  “What the hell?” I gasped. “I’m fried!” I said in a squeaky tone. The girls nodded, laughing at me in agreement.

  “You are going to blister! I hope you won’t be peeling when you walk down the aisle. That would be a nightmare!” Terra finished tying her wavy brown hair into a messy bun and picked at my side strap, examining my burn. “What’s? You have something . . .” she said.

  “What?” I lifted my arm, trying to see what she had.

  “You have . . . what is that? It looks like you
have a pen mark on you.” Terra licked her thumb and began rubbing the skin on my rib cage. I twisted in the mirror to see my unfinished tattoo. My face felt impossibly overheated, and I was thankful that she couldn’t see my flush through the burn of my skin. “It’s not coming off.” Terra continued to press into my side.

  “Stop,” I whispered frantically. Quiet as to not alert the other girls.

  “But you have . . .”

  “Stop, it’s a tattoo,” I whispered.

  “What?! You have a tattoo!” Terra blurted out, catching everyone’s attention.

  “Wait, you have a tattoo!”

  “She has a tattoo?”

  “What!?” It came from several directions in the locker room and seemed to echo off the walls. I brought my palm to my forehead as everyone except Brooklyn came to investigate.

  “Where?” They asked as they all searched my body.

  “What did you get?” They stared right past it.

  I gave up. Lifting my arm to the ceiling in defeat, but their eyes continued to explore every part of my body. The anticipation churned my stomach as I waited for them to realize they were already looking at it.

  “That's it. Right there,” Terra pointed out. I sighed, cutting through the shock and ugly gasps.

  “OK. I know. I didn’t go to get a pen mark on my side. I went to get an infinity symbol. But the guy totally messed up!” I folded my arms across my chest.

  “No!”

  “He messed up?”

  “What!”

  “How?”

  I searched their hungry eyes but ultimately couldn’t give them what they wanted. The truth tumbled out. “Well, he messed up when I leaped out of his chair!” I couldn’t help the embarrassed smile that split across my face. Terra laughed, and Kennedy covered her mouth with both hands to smother her hysterical giggle.