Read Online The Best of Fools (Jane Austen Book 2) by Marilyn Grey - Free Book Online Page B

obviously not calm. When Donovan began to rub her shoulders, she whined and told him to go lower or higher or press his thumbs in more. "Donny, really? You call this a massage?
    "I'm trying," he said.
    "Try harder. This feels like something a first grader would do."
    I sincerely hoped he had thrown that diamond ring out the window by now. What was he thinking?
    "Donny!" she shrieked. "That's too rough." She sat up and motioned for him to lie down. "Let me show you how it's done."
    He leaned down on his stomach and smirked at me. I smiled back, hiding my laughter. "Score," he mouthed. I shook my head, thankful that he was aware of how ridiculous she was acting.
    He smiled during the entire massage as she instructed him on how and why her methods were so much better. "Can you show me that one again? I'm not sure I got it," he said about fifteen times.
    I never understood his taste in girls.
    Never would apparently.
    "So," I said. "I'd like to go to Boston before I get the boutique started. I was thinking this weekend."
    "With your toe?" Donovan sat up and looked at his very agitated girlfriend.
    "I planned on bringing my toe, yes." I smiled.
    Zoe rolled her eyes. "I thought I told you I didn't feel comfortable with that unless I could come?" She inched away from him and looked at her lap. "What's more important to you? Her? Or me?"
    He did not want to answer that, but I nodded for him to say what she wanted to hear.
    "You, babe," he said. "Of course."
    "Then I want to come."
    "You know," I said. "I've been having doubts about it anyway. Maybe I should just stay home."
    "Really?" He searched my eyes for sincerity.
    I gave him the most real fake sincerity I could manage. "Yeah. I don't want to upset Mom."
    "Well." He eyed me up again, squinting. "Think about it a few days and let us know."
    Oh, I'd think about it all right. And he'd forgive me when I left without them.
    No freaking way I'd go on a car trip with Zoe. Absolutely not. I'd rather lose my toe for good.

    I planned to leave Saturday morning. So I spent Friday night at Autumn's house so I could leave without anyone bothering me or asking about it. Anyone meaning ... the entity I now referred to as D and Z.
    Autumn grabbed her iPad to rent a movie while I attempted to warm myself in her bed. She brought an enormous bowl of ice cream to me.
    I pulled the blankets to my chin. "How in the hell do you expect me to eat ice cream when your air conditioner has made it, oh, below ten degrees in here?"
    "Hell wouldn't be that cold."
    "Huh?"
    "You said how in the hell, but hell isn't cold."
    "How would you know? Maybe hell is nothing like you imagine. Maybe it's worse. Maybe it's everything you hate about your life but fifty thousand times worse. Maybe it's the absence of everything good. Maybe it's—"
    "Whoa. Put the horses back in the stable!"
    "Sorry." I picked up the iPad. "Horses have been reigned back in and stabled. What shall we rent?"
    "How about—"
    "Really, though. What do you think hell is?"
    She smacked the bed between us. "I knew it."
    I blinked.
    "I so knew you'd bring it back up. Horses may be in the stable, but they still won't stop yapping." She took a generous bite of ice cream and waved her spoon at me. "You're too deep for me."
    I laughed. "Okay, okay. I'll let you pick the movie this time."
    "Yeah, since you made me sit through another man flick."
    "Not a man flick."
    "Anything on National Geographic or the History Channel isn't considered a chick flick." She tapped the device a few times and brought up what I hoped, but knew, she would bring up. "This"—she clicked the rent button—"is gonna be so good."
    I dropped my jaw and pretended to snore.
    She whacked my arm. "Come on. It'll remind you of Alistair."
    I snored louder.
    She pinched my nose.
    "Ow!"
    "That's what my mom does to my dad." She laughed. "We'll be watching movies and when he falls asleep he snores so loud we can't hear. So she taps him, but nothing happens. The only thing that works is when