Knight: The Wordsmiths Book One

by Harlan, Christopher

  “Oh I remember. You think I’d forget you? No way.” She smiles when Colt turns the charm on. There’s definitely a vibe between them. She’s abrupt and speaks in a very blunt way, but there’s an unmistakable warmness to her—something that’s hard to quantify but easy to detect.

  I turn to Rowan to give one last hug. “And you must be. . .”

  “You can call me Ro, Knight. And it’s great to meet you for real.” She also gives a huge squeeze and by the time I let go some of my stress has been taken away. I should have known that Everleigh’s friends would be this nice. Good people surround themselves with other good people, and now it’s my turn.

  Now that the formalities are done I find myself staring at Everleigh. I can’t wait to celebrate, but in the back of my head I'm thinking about the asshole sitting across the dining room next to my ex. But even in the midst of all that mental noise I still notice Colton checking out Harley. He's not looking her up and down, or doing his I'm-a-sexy-male-author thing to her. That's usually how he is with beautiful women, but like I said I notice micro expressions in people, and his are of something I've never seen in him before--something antithetical to his personality: he seems submissive to her.

  What does that mean? Even though Colt’s one of the kindest human beings I've ever met, he usually leans toward the braggadocious, at least outwardly, and especially when it comes to meeting women. He's had some BAD experiences with his exes over the years. I haven't seen him look at anyone like he's looking at Harley since. . .

  When I look to my other side I see Grayson chatting it up with Rowan like no one else is in the room. Everyone seems to be hitting it off. We shift seats a little bit so that I can sit with Everleigh, and I guess that I'm not hiding my dissatisfaction with our company well because she asks me again, "What's the matter? And don't tell me 'nothing', I can see that it's something."

  "Did you look around the dining room at all?"

  "No, why?" She turns her head and starts scanning, and I wait until I see that she sees them. "Oh. Oh, wow. Really?"

  "My luck, I guess."

  "What are the odds? Look, don't let this ruin anything. You want to go somewhere else?"

  "No, it's fine, we're all here already. I can get past it."

  "If you get too distracted I want you to just look here." She places her fingers on my face and turns me gently from looking at KL to her. "Right here."

  "That sounds like a plan."

  Even though I'm still secretly seething, dinner is going off without a hitch. We order drinks and food, and everyone seems to be getting along. Next to me is a package I brought. It looks like I'm giving a gift, which I guess I kind of am. It's my new book. No one’s seen it and no one's read it but my editor. Thank God for her I still can't format dialogue correctly!

  As dinner goes on I find myself getting nervous. Insecurity isn't really something that I ever really feel, but as the time for me to show the cover and the title gets closer I start to worry that no one will like it. Then I look at Everleigh and tell myself to shut the fuck up. It seems to work.

  We order dessert. It's not nearly as good of a spread as what I could make if I were the pastry chef, but it's decent enough as these places go. Everleigh gets the Tiramisu and leans into me as the waiter puts it down in front of her. "You would have killed this dessert."

  "Thanks." I smile. Great minds.

  As the meal winds down I stand up. I don't have a prepared speech or anything, but there are a few things that I want to say. All eyes are on me, and I swallow audibly. I don’t know exactly how to express what I’m feeling, so I just start talking. “Everyone, listen up for a minute, I have nothing planned here except to show you what’s sitting next to me. Without getting all warm and squishy.”

  “What’s wrong with warm and squishy, Mike?”

  “Shut up, Colt!” I yell. “But seriously, I don’t wanna get overly emotional, but I do wanna give credit where it’s due. Tonight is about you guys as much as it is about me. To Colton and Grayson, there’s no way I’d be here right now if you hadn’t picked my tired ass up, several times, and made me join the Wordsmiths.”

  “It was our pleasure, Mike,” Grayson says. “That’s what brothers do. They help each other out.”

  “Still,” I say. “It wasn’t something you needed to do, but it was something that I needed to happen. And really, more than anyone else here tonight, I want to dedicate our own little cover reveal to you, Everleigh. I can honestly say that without you this book in my hands wouldn’t exist. I think you’re going to love it.” She smiles and looks up at me, and I decide that it’s time to take off the paper wrapping. “Here it is.” The paper pulls off easily, and underneath is my book. I think it one more time just so that I know it’s real. I’m holding my new book. I hand it to her so that she can read the cover.

  “Oh, Michael,” she says.

  “I thought you might like the title.”

  I watch her read it again and again, even though it’s only a single word.

  ForEver.

  It was the perfect title, and it came to me as soon as I finished the last page.

  “I can’t believe you named it. . .”

  “For you?” I ask. “Why not? It is for you, and I hope that you love it as much as I do.”

  “Congrats, man, it looks amazing!”

  “Thanks, Gray. That means a lot.” I forget for a minute that anyone else is even in the room until I hear Gray’s voice. I’m lost in Everleigh’s eyes, swollen with tears that I named a book in dedication to her.

  I pass the book around and everyone tells me how much they love it. I couldn’t be happier. Colton looks at his phone and I can see his face change. I look over to see what’s wrong but he won’t look back. He’s looking at his phone like it just robbed him—like he wants to smash it on the floor. I’m still celebrating and happy, so I look away, but then I see him get up and excuse himself. . .

  34

  Colton

  I look at my phone and see that the piece of shit excuse for an author took a pic of us from across the room, right when Mike was holding up his new book, and he uploaded it to his Brotherhood Facebook page with the caption “Hey Brotherhood members—here’s a pre-cover reveal from a washed up author. Who’s cover do you like better, his or mine???” Underneath that hateful post are 11 comments and counting, mostly the scumbags who joined that group tagging KL and telling him how great his cover is, and how much Mike’s sucks.

  I’m so fucking angry that I don’t know what to do. Mike finally got his life together, wrote what I’m sure is an amazing book, and dedicated it to the woman he’s falling for, and this guy tries to go negative on social media! Let me revise what I said. I do know what to do. I know exactly what to do.

  I watch him escape to the bathroom and I follow him. I avoid making eye contact with Mike because I don’t want him to talk me out of what I’m about to do. I wait until KL passes out of sight before I get up. I just keep looking at my phone so nothing looks suspicious. When I open the men’s room door I see that there’s no one inside but us. KL’s at the urinal draining his little dick, and I stand by the sink pretending to wash my hands. A few seconds later he’s done. I keep my head down at first, still pretending to wash my hands and planning what I’m going to do next.

  “Well, Colton Chase. Fancy meeting you in here.” The sound of KL’s voice is grating, and not only because I’m fuming. He has a high pitched, annoying voice that sounds really bad when he does live videos on Facebook. In person it might be even worse. “What brings you boys here tonight? I saw you all from across the room. Small world.” I feel my fist balling up even though I try to stop it.

  “We’re celebrating, KL.” I tell him, making eye contact in the mirror only. “Michael is releasing a new book soon, but you already know that, don’t you?”

  I’m looking at him intensely in the mirror, not moving my eyes from his to see how he reacts to what I just said. “I have a new book also,” he says with an arrog
ant smile creeping up on his face. “Coincidences all around tonight. We’re also here celebrating.”

  I’ve had enough of this charade. Banter is cool in a Tarantino film, but right now I’m just about done talking. “Did you tell them where you got your story from? Or were you planning on coming over and thanking Mike for his contribution?”

  He doesn’t like that one. “What are you talking about?” he asks. I turn towards him. “Don’t fuck around with me. I’m not Michael. I will beat the fuck out of you right where you stand.” I take a step closer to him so that we’re only inches apart. “I know you were the one who stole his laptop at the signing. I know that you took what he’d been inspired to write and built your new book around it. And I know that you just posted to Facebook making fun of his new book. None of this shit is okay.”

  “The Facebook thing was a joke,” he says, looking nervous. “I just did it to hype up my group. It’s called marketing, genius. Maybe you could learn from me. But about the other two things, who the hell do you think you are accusing me of committing a crime and not writing my own book? You have some balls.”

  “Yeah,” I say, inching even closer to his face to make him uncomfortable. “I do. Much bigger than yours. And if you deny what you did one more time something bad’s going to happen to you, do you hear me?”

  “Oh, I like the tough look on you, Chase. It’s sexy.” He starts laughing hysterically. “It’s like you’re starting to believe your own hype a little too much. You write shitty books about fighters, Chase, you aren’t one.”

  “That’s fair enough,” I say, calm as can be. “But I know enough to kick your ass. Now, what’s going to happen is this. You’re going to wash your filthy hands—the same ones that swiped my best friends computer. Then you’re going to walk out to the dining room, past your little entourage of losers, walk up to Michael, and tell him what you did in front of all of us.”

  “Is that right? Is that what I’m going to do?”

  “Only if you have half a brain. Which, knowing you, means that you won’t. But you should, trust me.”

  “Fuck you, Chase. Fuck you, and your stupid Wordsmith bullshit group. And I wouldn’t want to interrupt Michael while he’s making googly eyes at that dirty bitch sitting next to him. . .”

  He doesn’t know what’s happened until he’s buckled over in pain, struggling to breathe. If he’d had the time to process he might have seen my fist shooting full force into his abdomen, knocking the wind right out of him. I don’t know what’s coming over me, but I send one more shot his way as he tries to grab at my pant leg, this time into his face. I can feel his nose break as soon as I hit him, and pretty soon the blood is flowing out of it. I lean down and put my face next to his. “Fine, have it your way. Stay the fuck away from us or this is just the beginning of the beating I’m going to put on you, you piece of shit.”

  I leave him there, bleeding and embarrassed, and walk back out. As soon as I clear the bathroom I realize what I’ve done, and I start to panic. I’m not worried about him or about getting in trouble, I’m worried about escalation. As soon as one of his boys sees what I did to him this is going to turn into a thing none of us need it to turn into. I don’t want Michael’s moment ruined, so I hurry over to the table.

  Thank God, he’s paying the bill.

  35

  Knight

  I pay for everything and we all head out. Colton seems to be in a rush and I can’t really figure out why, but he’s trying to hide it from me for some reason. I can always catch up with him later. Right now Everleigh and I are going to split off from the group. We have some celebrating of our own to do.

  “Well, Knight, it was great meeting you. I love your book. And I love that you’re with my girl.” Harley extends her hand like we’re at a business meeting, but I scoop her up in a big hug. She reacts right away and hugs me back. “Sorry,” she says right after I let her go. “I have no idea why I went to shake your hand. I can be a little awkward. You’ll get used to it.”

  “I look forward to it. Goodnight Harley.”

  “What are you guys up to?” Grayson asks.

  “Everleigh and I are going back to my place. How about you all?”

  “Not sure,” Colt says, still looking a little nervous for some reason. “You ladies wanna hit up the bar a few blocks over? Feel like a goodnight drink?”

  Harley and Rowan look at each other and grin, hesitating for only a second. “We’d love to. Show us the way.” Rowan is interesting also. She seems to have struck up some pretty easy conversation with Gray over dinner. He’s a total nerd so I’m sure they were talking politics or literature or something. They look good together. Now, Colton and Harley? They look good together also, but each of their personalities is like a time bomb waiting to go off. I wonder how that’s going to work out. One thing I’m sure of though—Colton’s into her.

  “Great,” I tell them. “Thanks for coming tonight, guys. Have one for me.”

  “Will do,” Grayson answers. “We’ll catch up on some business tomorrow. Night.”

  “Night, guys.”

  <> <> <>

  We get back to my place, and I have a little surprise waiting for Everleigh. But first, a trip to the fridge where I put in a bottle of champagne to chill before I left.

  “That dinner was delicious,” she says. “The whole thing was really wonderful, even with that douche bag sitting across the room.”

  “Not my ideal dinner company. When he walked in I wanted to kill him. But then you guys arrived and I just let it go. I thought of what we talked about and I just did some breathing and it didn’t matter to me anymore. I think I might be growing as a person.” I laugh and so does she.

  “I think you might be. I like what I see.”

  “Here.” I grab my champagne flutes from the cabinet and get ready to pour us each a celebratory glass. The bottle pops like a firecracker when I open it, the foam pouring out of the tip so fast that I hold it over the sink. When the foaming stops I pour her glass first, and then mine. She looks so beautiful standing here in my kitchen. Her dress accentuates her body, drawing my eyes to every curve. But there’s one thing missing on her. I think I can help with that. “To new beginnings!”

  “New beginnings.”

  “Let’s go into the living room, I want to show you something.”

  I set everything up before I left so that my little plan would work perfectly. Dinner, drinks at my place, and now a few gifts that I hope she loves. I left the packages strategically positioned on the couch so that she’ll see them right away. It works.

  “What’s this?” she asks when she sees the two of them sitting side by side.

  “Open them up.”

  She sits down next to them and opens the one on the left first. “I love it.” She unwraps a special hard back copy of ForEver that I had specially printed for her. Inside the front cover I made a special dedication.

  To the woman whose name this title bears,

  I was a broken man when we met. My face needed a razor and my blank pages needed inspiration to fill them with words. And then I met you. You filled my head with words and my heart with feelings. The words in this story are a tribute to you.

  I love you.

  -Michael

  When she turns to me there are tears in her eyes. I sit down next to her on the couch and put my arms around her. “I love you, Everleigh. I don’t know why it took me this long to say it, but it’s true.”

  “I love you, too, Michael. So much!” She leans over and we kiss. Saying those words means everything to me, so much so that I don’t even consider whether the timing is right, or whether its too early, or whether or not she’ll say it back. I feel nothing but trust and passion with her, and as soon as she says it back to me I know that it’s real. “This book is so beautiful. I’m going to put this on my shelf and never ever touch it again!”

  “Whatever you want to do with it is fine with me, it’s yours, forever, and in more ways than one. But, hey,” I menti
on, “that’s just the first thing, open up the other.”

  “Michael, this night is about you, you really didn’t have to get me anything at all.”

  “You’re wrong on both counts, Ev. This night is actually about you, and I couldn’t help but get you a little something. Now open it up.”

  She looks like a kid on Christmas, and I watch her tear at the small box I wrapped terribly. “I’m sorry. I’m shitty at wrapping gifts.”

  “I don’t care about that,” she says, opening it up. “Oh, Michael.”

  The little blue box reveals itself under the wrapping that now finds it’s place on the floor. There’s no mistaking that Tiffany light blue color. Inside is a necklace—a heart pendant—that I had inscribed on the back. “This is so beautiful.”

  “Turn it over.” On the other side the words read, “ForEver yours, Michael.”, which is also on the dedication page of the book. “Can I put it on you?”

  “You’d better.”

  She turns around and lifts her hair up. I reach around and drape the necklace over her naked neck, so that my heart rests firmly on top of hers. “Let me see.”

  “How does it look?”

  “Not nearly as gorgeous as you.” We kiss some more, and I want nothing more than to take her upstairs to the bedroom, but first there’s something that we need to do. “Here,” I say, taking out my phone. “I want to remember this night. Let’s take a pic.” She leans in and I hold the phone up at just the right angle. It comes out perfectly, no filter required. “Before we go upstairs, I want you to know that I need everyone to know about us. This isn’t some secret thing we’re doing. It’s not some tawdry affair or some shady hook up. We’re in love, and I’m not hiding that from anyone.”

  “I love you. And I trust you to do whatever you feel is best.”