Free The Best of Fools (Jane Austen Book 2) by Marilyn Grey

she knees him in the shin or pinches his nose."
    I laughed. "Sounds romantic."
    "Well, they may not be Mr. and Mrs. Austen, but I like to think it's romantic in their own little way."
    Something about those words stuck with me. For some reason I had never thought of it before. I always felt this pressure to be like the kind of romance my parents had, but maybe I needed to find my own romance. Maybe love wasn't Jane Austeny to me. Maybe it was something I hadn't discovered yet.
    That kinda intrigued me.
    "Ready?" She hit play.
    "Ready as I'll ever be." I sighed as the movie started. Some indie film called Like Crazy about two peeps loving each other ... like crazy, I assumed. But as the movie progressed I felt something I'd never felt before. I felt my cheeks pulling my lips into a smile as the couple fell in love on screen. It was natural. It was real. It wasn't Jane Austeny or bursting with sparks. It was so ... nice.
    The credits came up and I smiled as big as possible.
    Autumn flopped back into her pillow and grunted. "Horrible ending." She looked back at the screen as though it would suddenly reveal the ending she hoped for. "Worst ever." She landed in the pillows again.
    I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled. "Loved it."
    "Are you serious?"
    I nodded. "Loved it a lot."
    "But that ending...."
    "Was real."
    "Annoying."
    "Beautiful."
    And so I learned ... beauty is annoying to some people. My beauty, at least.
    Is it bad that I liked that?

Chapter 11
    Maybe it was the movie that I couldn't stop thinking about or maybe the emotional sound of Secrets by Jennifer Thomas as it serenaded me from my car's speakers. Whatever it was, I was now sitting in my car as gas poured into it and I was doing the thing.
    The thing girls do when they like someone.
    I was looking up every picture imaginable. Of Alistair. And zooming in. And feeling feelings. But not the feels . Just ... feelings.
    A rap on my window and a boisterous laugh. What the?
    Donovan pointed at my phone. "I told you!"
    Great. I shoved the phone away. "I was—"
    "You were just what?"
    "What are you doing here?"
    "Just got back from Autumn's house. Stalked you here."
    The pump clicked. I got out and scooted around him. "But why were you at Autumn's?"
    "I'm not dumb."
    "You can't come with me."
    "I can do whatever the hell I want, Jane. She doesn't own me."
    "But...."
    He opened my trunk and put his bag in. "I'm coming."
    "When you're in love the person may not own you, but aren't they part of you? A part you don't want to piss off?"
    He smiled. "Too late for that."
    "You pissed her off?"
    "Almost daily."
    "So ... it's over?"
    "I don't know."
    "You bought a ring, Donovan." I shook my head. "See, this is exactly why I don't trust emotions."
    "I didn't buy that ring." He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me around the car and into the passenger's seat. "Not recently anyway."
    "Huh?"
    He sat down in the driver's seat and turned the ignition. "Bought it for you."
    He said it so casually. Like what the heck? He just said that and was he serious?
    "Oh." I slapped his arm. "One of your dumb jokes again. I'm not falling for it this time."
    He accelerated the car and turned out of the gas station. "I'm serious."
    "No you're not."
    He laughed. "I bought it when I was fifteen."
    "What?" I laughed. "Now I know you're full of it."
    He stopped at the red light and turned serious on me. "No, Jane. I really did."
    I cleared my throat. "You what?"
    "I bought it for you. I just figured it would be you and I saved up everything I could when I worked at the grocery store."
    "Donovan James Slovak."
    "Jane Maryanne Austen."
    "Oooh. Not the middle name too."
    He smiled. Playfully smiled at me like he smiled at his girlfriends. "I'm serious, you know."
    I looked out the window. "I know."
    We drove all the way to New York without saying another word. And I didn't feel the need to. Neither did he. The music filled in where we lacked and it filled in perfectly. Everything was comfortable with