Chapter 4:

About an hour later, Liz arrived in Harmony. It was almost noon. She
called Antonio on his cell phone.

"Hello?" Antonio said after two rings.

"Hi, Antonio," Liz replied cheerfully.

"Liz!" Antonio exclaimed happily. It was so good to hear from his longtime
friend/ex-lover. "How are you? Where are you calling me from? The caller ID
said this is a local number."

"I'm great Antonio. I'm in Harmony right now, actually. I just got here and I
don't know my way around town, so I was hoping you could -"

Antonio finished her sentence for her. "Show you around?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"I'll be happy to," he answered. "Are you at the airport?"

"Yeah, Gate Seven."

"I'll be there in a little bit." Antonio replied, putting his jacket on and
grabbing his car keys.

They hung up.

Time to win Antonio over...again, Liz thought to herself mischievously.


Meanwhile, in Harmony, Luis drove his Toyota Sequoia over to Beth's
house. It was time to tell her the truth about Sheridan's return. It was going to
hurt Beth, and that's the last thing he wanted to do, but it was inevitable.

He decided to take her to Sheridan's cottage so he, Beth, Antonio and
Sheridan could discuss things. Obviously Sheridan had to choose between him
and his brother, so he didn't want to completely destroy Beth's hopes of them still
being together. Especially if Sheridan chose Antonio.

Luis got out of the car and rang the doorbell. Beth opened the door a few
seconds later.

"Luis!" she exclaimed happily, giving him a hug and a kiss.

Luis smiled guiltily. I don't want to hurt her, he thought to himself.

"What's up?" she asked, letting him inside.

"Oh, umm, I actually wanted to ask you if you have anything to do today. I
need to tell you something and I'll tell you on the way to ..." Luis paused, knowing
he almost said 'Sheridan's cottage.' "Why don't you come with me, ok?"

He extended his hand. She looked at him, oddly. Something is definitely up,
she thought to herself. And it doesn't seem like a good thing.

"Let me just change. I'll be back in a minute."

He nodded as he sat down on the couch.

What is going on? Beth thought to herself as she watched Luis sit down.
Whatever it is, I can handle it. I'm strong. She inhaled, preparing for the worse.

A few minutes later, they sat down in Luis' car and were ready to go.
"So what is this thing you have to tell me?" Beth asked, getting right to the
point.

"Well, umm," Luis began, unsure of how to tell her that his ex-fiancée had
returned from the dead.... again.

"Luis whatever it is you can tell me," Beth said, putting her hand on his
knee. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Beth," Luis replied. "That's why it's so much harder to tell
you."

Beth's face contorted into a confused look. "Just say it, Luis, please," she
begged him.

"Ok," Luis said. He inhaled deeply. "Well you know how we all thought that
Sheridan Crane died in that boat explosion, right?"

"Ya..." Beth began, not liking where this was going.

"Well it turns out that she's very much alive. I saw her yesterday."

"Oh my Gosh!" Beth exclaimed, shocked. "Luis, she's alive? That's great,
but, what does this mean for us?"

Beth looked at Luis eagerly, hoping he'd still want to stay with her.

"Well you see the thing is that she didn't come alone. The twelve months
she was away, she fell in love with another man. And not just any man at that -
my older long lost brother. So that's why I'm taking you to her cottage, Beth."

"Sheridan fell in love with Antonio?" Beth asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Luis groaned. "So I figured we could all sit down and talk to each
other about this like the responsible adults that we are."

"Oh sure," Beth said.

Luis parked the car near the cottage and they stepped out. They headed to
the cottage, where Sheridan already was.


At around the same time Beth and Luis arrived at Sheridan's cottage,
Antonio was eagerly looking around for Liz at Gate Seven of the Harmony
Airport.

"Liz!" he cried out when he saw her, giving her a big hug and a kiss on the
cheek.

"Antonio!" she squealed happily, hugging her ex-boyfriend.

"I've missed you," he said, all smiles.

"Oh come now, Antonio," she said laughing on the outside but secretly
thrilled on the inside, "it's only been a little while!"

"Still." he responded, gazing into her brown eyes.

That was the same look he used to give me when we were lovers, Liz
thought to herself.

She blushed slightly as he helped her with her luggage.

On the drive from the airport to the cottage, Antonio told Liz about his
current situation with Sheridan and his brother.

"So yeah, Luis said he wanted to have a big talk with me, Diana, oops I
mean Sheridan, his girlfriend Beth and him. I'm sorry I have to put you through it
when you JUST arrived in Harmony, but that's where I'm staying right now, so.."

"Hey that's no problem," Liz said putting her hand up in objection. "Maybe I
could offer my two cents into that discussion."

"What do you mean, Liz?" Antonio asked her curiously.

"Well," Liz said deciding to be matter-of-fact with the man next to her, "I'm
still very much in love with you."

Antonio looked at her, shocked. He didn't say anything for a minute as he
absorbed her words. "I should have guessed it," he said. "You couldn't stop crying
when I almost died in that car race a few weeks ago. You do care for me."

She nodded a yes.

"You know, Liz," he continued. "Part of me never let you go when we broke
up. You still have a very deep place in my heart."

He turned to look at her. She was smiling. He smiled back.

If this is not motivation for me to continue my scheme to get him back, she
thought to herself, then I don't know what is. Antonio still loves me. There's no
way I'm gonna let SHERIDAN have him now!!

They got out of the car and walked the steps up to the cozy cottage.

{A/N: i think this was a good chapter but it starts to heat up in the next
few!! just you wait! r/r if you've got anything to say. i want opinions! peace out}