Smile Full Book Novels & Stories

~ ◆◆◆ Chapter 2 ◆◆◆ ~ ~ Niklaus Henderson ~ “Uhm… sorry,” I said, closing the book with a deliberate snap and offering a half-smile that felt more awkward than I’d have liked. “I came in late, and this book is very mind-blowing.” She paused mid-motion, a stack of returned novels in her arms, and then she laughed — soft at first, then brighter, a sound so clear and unguarded it felt like sunlight cutting through fog.

My chest tightens. Mom leans over. “Draw him a smile, sweetheart,” she says. Lila grabs a crayon. “Why do you not smile, Uncle Vor?” she asks. Her eyes big. Innocent. “You look sad.” The room quiets. Even the ocean seems to pause. I set my fork down. “I smile plenty, monster,” I say. I force a grin, wide but fake. “See? Happy.” Lila tilts her head. “Not real,” she says. “Real smiles go to your eyes.”

"Yes, I'll be your girlfriend. Yes, you can take care of us. Yes, Adam. Yes." The smile that broke across his face was not the thin, self-deprecating smile of the past week. It was not the controlled, professional smile of the CEO or the polite, distant smile of the man at the reception in Zurich. It was a real smile — wide and unguarded and almost painful in its intensity. The smile of a man who had been holding his breath for a decade and had finally been allowed to exhale.

And then, slowly…so slowly it felt deliberate…he smiled. Not a nice smile. A dangerous one. "Or what?"

When he compared the two he froze and his eyes widened a little. “It matches!!!” he said in this quiet voice. “Really” “Yes. It’s the same pattern. Almost exact.” He sat up slowly and then did something that caught me off guard. He smiled. Not the usual small smile. This one was bright and warm and made him look younger. Almost like he dropped all the heavy things he carried every day. I just stared at him because I had never seen him smile like that. It made my chest feel full. “This might help us!” he said. “This book and my old library. We should go back. Maybe there is more there. Something that explains what this is.”

“Kael! Wait!” My jaw was tight as I turned slowly. She had that sugary smile that always seemed more like a mask than anything real. “You’re not mad at me, are you?” she asked. “Mad?” I repeated flatly. She giggled, tilting her head. “Come on. Don’t look at me like that. It was just a joke. Everyone laughed, right? That’s what makes book clubs fun sometimes.” “Fun?” I said, my voice dropping lower. I took a step toward her, and for the first time, the smile wavered on her face. “You call that fun?”

, he asked. Immediately after he asked, my stomach growled in response before I could say anything, and that made Alexander smile. It was not a smirk, a mocking smile, a sinister smile, or an I-know-it-all smile. It was a genuine, heartwarming smile. He found my stomach growl funny, while I found it embarrassing. The smile faded in less than fifteen seconds, but at least there was progress. He had not held back from smiling, trying to press his lips together even when they tried to curl up, like he had done before. He did not maintain a straight and expressionless face like he normally did, or smirk like he was my evil superior who found more ways to demean me. So, yes, I liked that he smile

The real smile — full, unguarded, the one from the photograph on her father's desk, the one from the bookstore window, the one that had no idea the world was watching and no longer cared. "Yes," she said. "I'll stay." And for the second time in thirty-four chapters — the second time in forty-two floors and thirty-eight years and one contract and eight weeks of a life that had become entirely something else — Nathan Cole smiled. Fully. Without reservation. The light held for the rest of the ninety seconds. Then it shifted, the way it always did, leaving Carver Street exactly as it had been. Except that now two people were standing in it who had asked and answered the only question that matter

The woman was smiling brightly in the picture and this caused a slight movement on Caelen's lips, almost like a sad smile. He put the picture back into the pages, closed the book and left his study.

It's the kind I call a full-blown, teeth-showing, life-is-beautiful smile. Jax noticed him immediately, and to my horror, she smiled back. Gosh, she actually smiled. It was not the fake smile she gave people she hated. It was not even the sarcastic smile she reserved for me whenever she wanted to remind me that kidnapping women wasn't exactly romantic. It was a real and warm smile, the kind that said she was genuinely happy to see him. "Oh, for fuck's sake," I muttered under my breath. Then it got worse, much worse.