Entwined Souls

CONTENTS Newsletter Dedication Prologue 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 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Epilogue Dear Readers Let’s connect! Other Titles by Ellie Wade About the Author Please visit Ellie’s Amazon Author page for more information on her other books. Would you like to know when Ellie has giveaways, sales, or new releases? Sign up for her newsletter. <3 Copyright © 2023 by Ellie Wade All rights reserved. Visit my website at www.elliewade.com Cover Designer: Letitia Hasser, RBA Designs Editor: Jenny Sims, www.editing4indies.com No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. ISBN-13: 978-1-944495-34-3 This book is dedicated to Jenny Sims. You are my superstar. Thank you for all you do. I’m so grateful for you. PROLOGUE My whole life has been a lie. Nobody knows me. Not my family or my friends. But I know myself, and I’m a coward. They say when you break a bone, it gets stronger in the place it was broken. The bone heals, fortifying the fracture with more strength and protecting it for the future. It’s not the same with a heart. When my heart shattered, I put it back together with the weakest of adhesives. I breathed denial and lived in avoidance. I pushed the hurt so far down, I could almost pretend it never happened. I created a world where my other half never existed. Forgetting him was my glue—mere flour and water paste—the kind that barely holds. Even a minor heartbreak would shatter the desperate bonds keeping my heart together. I can’t take a chance on falling in love because I can’t risk the inevitable heartbreak after. I couldn’t take it. My soul is too fragile. Love isn’t guaranteed. It’s always a gamble. And I know, better than most, that it’s not worth the fall. The body can only withstand so many tragedies before it ceases to exist. Only one person has made me want more. More than a relationship built on convenience. More than lukewarm emotions and shallow affections. I’ve known relationships—every part of them. But I’ve never known love. Not since the loss of the greatest one. I’ve never allowed myself to find it again. The moment a spark of it is lit into existence, I bail, running far away from the source. Only one person has ever made me feel at risk of losing my resolve. Only one has made me question my convictions. Only one has had me wondering if maybe… just maybe, I should try. Only one. Yet I know it would break me to lose him. He’d shatter the feeble bonds holding my weak heart together. He’d be impossible to recover from. That loss would be devastating. So I have to stay away, but that in itself is impossible. He’s the one person I can’t distance myself from. He’s my best friend. CHAPTER 1 CASSIE Looking up at the night sky, I can’t see her—my namesake, Cassiopeia. It’s not a surprise as the constellation named after the vain queen from Greek mythology is harder to see in the summer. She rules over the northern sky during the autumn and winter months. The stories of the goddess aren’t at all positive. While she had unrivaled beauty, she was conceited and cruel, and for all intents and purposes—a villain. Odd qualifications to admire when choosing a name for your child. Then again, my mother is nothing if not strange. Arrogant queen constellation or not, it’s a perfect summer night and ideal for a Michigan wedding. My friend Quinn married Ollie, the man of her dreams, today, and I couldn’t be happier for her. Everything about the event was stunning, straight out of a Pinterest board titled “Chic Summer Country Weddings.” I thank the bartender, supplying the tip jar with another bill, and take a sip of the white wine. Like everything here, it’s heavenly. There’s a commotion out in the field where Ollie has just revealed a giant inflatable waterslide, a gift to his bride, apparently. I grin at the shrieks and laughter coming from the slide and accompanying bouncy house, and head into the barn where the ceremony was held earlier. I’m quite certain the old barn, with its twinkle lights and elaborate flower arrangements, is one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen. “Hey.” I jump at the sound. “Sorry.” Asher chuckles. “I thought you heard me come in.” “No.” I sigh with a smile. “Just enjoying the wine and this place. It’s so beautiful.” He looks around. “Yeah, she did a really great job. Exactly what I’d expect from Quinn.” I nod. “True.” As a fashion designer, Quinn has a keen eye for style in all its forms. Pulling my phone out of my bra, I turn toward Asher. “We should get a selfie in here. It’s too pretty not to.” His full lips tilt into a smile, and his hazel eyes sparkle beneath the twinkle lights. Asher is a beautiful man, inside and out. “Sure. I think we might’ve gotten one earlier.” He raises a brow. “But we can never have too many, right?” “Right.” I set my glass on one of the benches that Quinn’s dad carved out of a tree and wave Asher over. Asher circles his arm