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

by Laura C. Reden

  “Twins?!” Easton’s voice echoed in the small waiting room. The few patients there peeked up at us. “We’re having twins!” Easton announced. A small applause erupted, and congratulations were expressed. I was barely aware of my surroundings as we walked out to the car. If there was any concern that my life would be fulfilled with the love of one child, there was undoubtedly no questioning that twice the love would bring my life to a complete stop. And this was something that I would need to tell Easton.

  Chapter 16

  The advice on the block was not to tell friends and family of your pregnancy until the second trimester. Got to make sure it “Sticks,” they would say. Though, with how nauseous I was, I was pretty sure the stickiness of this pregnancy was like molasses. That’s why we were going to tell Brooklyn and Tanner tonight when they came for dinner. Sure, Tanner already knew, but not officially. I was looking forward to seeing his best surprised face. I’d bet that it was terrible.

  It was a perfect summer day, hot by morning and just bearable by the evening. It made me yearn for the days of dipping my feet in the pool as a kid. Easton would swim, of course, but I only got as deep as the second step. I smiled as I set the table with fancy napkin rings and peered outside to Easton by the barbecue. It was the first real dinner I’d host as a wife, and I wanted to make it special. Well, that and Brooklyn had been begging me to set her up with Tanner since the wedding. They had been lucky enough to run into each other here or there, but each time it was nothing but awkward. I had the feeling she liked Tanner a lot more than anyone in her recent years and perhaps recent lives. Tanner, on the other hand, played it cool, though he seemed interested enough.

  The doorbell rang. I took one last glance at the dining table before answering the door. When I opened it, Brooklyn greeted me with large eyes that glistened with anticipation. She had a crush, alright. I could see her gaze flicker behind me, searching for Tanner. “Come in; he’s out back,” I said.

  Brooklyn stepped in as she tugged on her sundress. It hugged all the right places and was a perfect choice for a summer barbeque. “How do I look? Do I look OK?” she asked.

  “Stop, you look amazing. Any guy would be lucky to have you,” I said. It was the truth. Brooklyn was a babe, and not only that, she was smart and caring.

  “Right, no, I know. I’m not nervous or anything. Just asking,” Brooklyn said with shifty eyes and tense shoulders. I smiled.

  “Right,” I agreed. “Can I get you a drink? I have a seltzer, cold and bubbly.”

  “Yes, that would be great. So, what have you been up to? I haven’t seen you much lately. Is married life all that consuming?” Brooklyn asked though I could tell that her thoughts were elsewhere.

  I slid her a seltzer and tied my long hair back in a bun. “I know, I’m sorry. I’ve been . . . gardening,” I said, thinking back to the time I considered buying lilies at the market, but passed on them.

  “Oh, I didn’t know you had a green thumb. You will have to show me,” Brooklyn said, opening her drink. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as her eyes searched the kitchen counter. “You're not having one?”

  I swallowed. This conversation was too much work, and I wanted to tell her about the pregnancy at the dinner table; not here, not now. “I’m going to have one a little later,” I said.

  “Have one now,” she pressed.

  “Do you want to go outside? See Tanner?” I asked.

  “Yeah!” Brooklyn shimmied her shoulders and headed for the back slider. She turned just before I rounded the kitchen counter. “Bring your drink,” she said as she disappeared outside. I sighed, then turned around and snatched a seltzer from the refrigerator.

  The air was thick with heat and the sky still bright as I joined Easton, Tanner, and Brooklyn near the barbeque. The tension was high, and the conversation had stalled. I cracked open the top to my seltzer, and both boys stared at me with knitted brows. I smiled at them with narrowed eyes until someone dared to break the silence. “So, I hear you two are joining the police academy?” Brooklyn said before taking a sip of her drink. I mimicked her, raising my seltzer to my lips and then pulling it away. I assumed nobody was watching me that closely, and from their peripheral vision, I was most likely pulling this thing off. If anything were to blow my cover, it was going to be Easton’s shifty eyes.

  “Yeah, you're looking at two of Clover’s newest officers right here!” Tanner slapped Easton’s back.

  “Wait, you already did it?” Brooklyn asked.

  “Oh no. But we signed up, so there’s that,” Tanner said.

  “Oh, wow. That’s going to be great. I can’t wait to see you in a uniform—I mean you guys. I mean . . . not you Easton . . .” Brooklyn sipped her drink and looked around the yard, her cheeks red. Had I really been drinking my seltzer, I would have spit it out right then and there. I’d never seen Brooklyn so awkward and from the look on her face, she hadn’t been used to it either. I glanced at Easton and raised my drink back to my lips and winked at him. “What are you doing?” Brooklyn asked.

  I whipped my head over to her. “What?” I asked.

  “Are you seriously pretending to drink that seltzer?” she asked.

  “Oh, that. . .” I bit my bottom lip, stalling. It wasn’t how I wanted to tell her. But after I glanced around our back yard and saw no tell-tale signs of my gardening, I decided it was time to drop the act. “So, I have something to tell you . . .”

  “Stop—” Brooklyn started.

  “I’m pregnant!” I said in a high-pitched voice, not out of excitement but out of the uncertainty of how it would be received. Brooklyn stared, her face expressionless. I’m not sure why, but I felt like I was in trouble. She took an extra-long drink, finishing her can. I quickly glanced at Easton, and I could tell that he was uncomfortable too.

  “Well, I already knew, but officially . . . congratulations,” Tanner said before reaching out for a hug.

  “He already knew?” Brooklyn said, finally breaking her silence and confirming that, in fact, I was in some sort of trouble with my best friend.

  “Well, no. He had his theories and all, but—” I said, pulling out of Tanner's arms.

  “No, I knew. Easton told me,” Tanner said, making the whole thing worse. I slapped my thigh and gave him a sideways glare. Was it not obvious what was happening here? I caught the slightest glance of Easton’s smirk before he turned back to the barbeque. “So, what are you going to name them?” he asked. Tanner asked.

  My stomach sank, and I closed my eyes, briefly pinching the bridge of my nose. This couldn’t have gone any worse. “Them?” Brooklyn asked, looking between Tanner and me.

  “I. I. I’m having twins,” I stammered.

  Brooklyn smiled a wide toothy grin that didn’t come close to touching her eyes. “Congratulations, you guys. I’m so happy for you to have chosen that path,” she said. I startled when she grabbed the seltzer out of my hand and started on it. I watched her as she guzzled my untouched drink. “What about you, Tanner? Do you want kids?” she asked. My eyes flickered to his.

  “Oh, well yeah—” Brooklyn shook her head no, “—Maybe, no. No.” Tanner was quick to change his answer, shaking his head no alongside Brooklyn’s.

  “Hey, I’m just going to check on the . . . salad. Easton?” I asked, calling his attention away from the barbeque. He followed me into the kitchen, shutting the slider behind him. “What was that?” I asked the second the door closed.

  “I know. Why was she mad? Think she’s jealous?”

  “Jealous? No, why would she be jealous? I mean Tanner. He’s practically throwing me under the bus. I thought he knew it was a secret?”

  “Well, yeah. But the secret’s out,” Easton said, confused. I let out a loud audible sigh. Why didn’t guys understand that it was never straightforward with us girls? He was supposed to act like he was surprised so that Brooklyn didn’t get her feelings hurt for not knowing first. “Am I missing something?” Easton asked.

  “No,” I said. Yes. H
e was missing something—a very large something—that I couldn’t explain right now. I peeked through the slider to see Brooklyn reaching out and touching Tanner’s shoulder. “New plan,” I said, eyes on the flirting.

  “There was an old plan?” Easton asked.

  “Stay with me here, Easton! We need them to fall in love.” If Brooklyn fell for Tanner, she’d forget all about how I derailed her plan to be best friends forever.

  “We do?” Easton asked.

  “Yeah.” Clearly, we weren’t on the same page.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. . .” So, she wasn’t mad at me? “Because she likes him?” I said.

  Easton shrugged. “Fair enough. What’s the plan then?” he asked, steepling his chin and watching the couple by the barbeque.

  “Well, we can start by giving them some alone time?” I said. Easton nodded and pulled up a seat at the kitchen counter. “You're just going to sit there like that?”

  “Yeah, was I supposed to be doing something else?”

  “Well, you can’t make it obvious! Here, toss the salad,” I said, pulling out the salad that needed our desperate attention.

  “So, what do you really think is going on with her? Why wouldn’t she be excited?” Easton mixed the salad as I threw in berries and walnuts.

  “She’s worried things will change between us, and we will drift apart,” I said, feeling sad for the inevitable change. I was deflated by how she reacted, but my heart hurt knowing why she did it even more.

  “Well, that’s ridiculous. I mean, unless she has a thing against babies, there’s no reason you two can’t still be best friends,” Easton said. I wished it were as simple as that. Maybe Brooklyn should give up the act and finish what she started, too. Maybe we all should live our last life . . .

  “Shit, here they come. Act natural!” I said, doing anything but. Easton frowned and picked up the salad tongs again.

  “Oh, hey . . . We were just tossing the salad,” I hated myself the second the words left my mouth.

  “OK,” Brooklyn said on her way to the refrigerator. She pulled out another seltzer, and I immediately knew it was going to be one of those nights. Although, this was the first time I wouldn’t be able to drink away the sorrows alongside her.

  When dinner was ready, Brooklyn and Tanner had drunk enough to put them on a different level altogether. They were loud, clumsy, and the flirting was terrible. It wasn’t the romantic start I wanted for them, but it was outside of my control. Easton and I observed as the night went sideways on us, but only he found it amusing.

  “Did Easton tell you we had a physical assessment today?” Tanner said from across the table.

  “How’d that go?” Brooklyn asked.

  “He’s got some work to do,” Tanner laughed, and Brooklyn wailed.

  “It’s training . . . and you need it too,” Easton said.

  “Is this where it ends, Easton?” Brooklyn said, and the way she stared at Easton made me believe she wasn’t talking about his path to becoming a police officer.

  “No, Brooklyn. This is only the beginning,” Easton replied, picking up on her shift.

  “That’s what you think. But your wrong,” Brooklyn said.

  “It’s just training. Haven’t you ever worked out before?” Easton asked.

  “You can’t train your way out of this mess.” The room fell silent as Easton and Brooklyn glared at each other. The way they fought, they could have been brother and sister. And now that I thought about it, maybe they had been in another life.

  “It’s OK, little brother. We will beef up those spaghetti arms. Ain’t no chicken legs holding my bro back!” Tanner said.

  “OK, first of all, Tanner, I’m older than you—” The moment Easton said it, I could tell he realized he was fighting an uphill battle.

  “By sixteen days—” he pointed at Easton with his breadstick.

  “And second of all, these aren’t chicken legs! I don’t know why you keep calling them that. I’m a man of steel. Just ask Beck!”

  “Do you mean Becca?” Brooklyn asked. Oh no. What was she doing? Easton sighed, clearly not happy with Brooklyn’s attempts to derail the night. “Surely you don’t mean Everly?”

  My stomach dropped. Easton slammed his hands down on the table and popped to his feet.

  “Who’s Everly?” Tanner asked, looking around the table. I bit my lip, my heart pounding.

  “Brooklyn! Can I talk to you outside?” I asked sharply. She rolled her eyes but followed me into the backyard. The air was still hot, and it helped to take the edge off the icy conversation inside. “What are you trying to do?” I snapped, harsher than intended.

  Brooklyn popped a hand on her hip and laid into me. “You are a liar!” I flinched back. Her tone piercing. “You and I were a team. You told me that you would never leave me. And when you married Easton, you promised me nothing would change between us. But here we are, Becca. You went and changed the plan. And you didn’t even talk to me about it. And then you told Tanner before you told me? Do I mean nothing to you?”

  “No, that’s not—”

  “You and I were a team! Did you ever think how you would impact my future if you broke our pact? Did you even think about me at all?” her voice rising with fury.

  “Brooklyn, I’m sorry, but—”

  “But, what? You made your choice. You dug your grave. I can’t help you anymore, Becca.”

  “I don’t need your help!”

  “Well, don’t think I’m going to stick around to see how it ends for you.” Brooklyn’s eyes turned sober, making it hurt twice as much.

  “That's . . . like sixty years from now, you can’t be my friend for the next sixty years?” I asked.

  A tear fell off Brooklyn’s cheek, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she was angry or sad. Maybe a little of both. Easton popped his head out of the slider, and I wondered how much they heard inside. “Dinner is cold,” he said.

  “This won’t end well for you, Becca,” she said as she wiped her cheek and breezed past me. Dinner continued just as terrible as the first half, but Brooklyn had turned her attention to Tanner making embarrassing and sometimes crude comments this time. By the end of the long night, Brooklyn had fallen asleep on our sofa, and Easton drove Tanner home. I sat at the dinner table with my hand on my tummy, staring at the untouched food, wondering where the night had gone wrong. It was my first time hosting dinner, and I wanted the night to go perfectly. It was to be a celebration of life but turned into quite literally the opposite. Brooklyn was mad at me for choosing love over immortality. I picked up a cold dinner roll and rolled it around in my hand. Had I really chosen this for myself? Or was the path chosen for me long ago?

  I had just started to clean the kitchen when Easton came home. He stood in the entryway staring at Brooklyn for a moment. “Do you want me to take her home?” he asked.

  “No. She lives too far. She can just stay here tonight. I’m sure she’ll leave in the morning.”

  “Right.” Easton picked up the plates from the dinner table and brought them to the sink. “Barefoot and pregnant,” he said.

  I smirked at him. “Sorry tonight was such a disaster,” I said.

  “It’s OK. I know I don’t have chicken legs.” I laughed a little too loud, and Brooklyn stirred on the sofa. “So, she knows about Everly?” he asked, a little surprised.

  “Yeah, well, I told her. I had to. I should have said something to you earlier. Sorry.”

  Easton shrugged it off. “She believed you?” he asked.

  “It was the only thing that made sense with her dreams and all. I told her that our death was in the past, and she had nothing to worry about. It actually helped strengthen our relationship.” Easton didn’t know that I spoke to Brooklyn about being tethered, let alone that she was tethered herself. I wasn’t sure why it was so important for her to keep secret, but I would not say anything if it was important to her.

  “That’s surprising. It’s never turned out that way
for me. It usually just blows up in my face. I lose my friend. Always.” I felt terrible. Especially when I thought back to how my nephew reacted at the park. But I held that information back too. It seemed like I did that a lot lately.

  “Well, I’m glad you have such a good friend that she would stand by you, even when you tell her something as impossible as this. But she sure was upset tonight.”

  “She just feels like I’m leaving her behind. I don’t agree with it, but I can understand where she’s coming from. She’s told me I was like a sister to her, and she hasn’t had that since her very first—” I froze. My hands still under the running water.

  “First, what?” Easton asked. I’d said too much. It wasn’t my place to tell.

  “First grade. Since she was in first grade.” I started washing the dishes again. Easton and I continued talking till the kitchen was clean, and then I was ready to hit the bed like a ton of bricks. My eyes burned, and I was more tired doing daily tasks now that I was simultaneously building two people from scratch. I waited in the hall for Easton as he walked out into the living room and turned off the lights. Brooklyn stirred once more, and then I heard her . . .

  “Goodnight, killer . . .”

  Chapter 17

  Goosebumps prickled my skin as I stood in the dark hallway. There was a bitter moment of stillness before Easton’s footsteps padded down the hall. Whatever he felt, whatever he wanted to say back to Brooklyn, it took a lot of strength to hold inside. I felt the ice as Easton passed by me. Closing the door softly behind me, I watched Easton’s silhouette disappear into the restroom. The lights from the bathroom lit up a portion of our bedroom, but I stood still in the shadows. Torn between being a good friend and being a good wife.

  We got ready for bed in silence, and after lying by his side, unable to close my eyes, I rolled onto my side to see Easton still awake. “Brooklyn means well. I know she came off a little harsh tonight, but she means well,” I whispered.