Eddie awoke to the sound of his cell's alarm. He was still tired, but he had not been able to fall into a deep sleep. He got up and stretched, put on his shoes and headed to the bathroom.

Several minutes later, he was heading down to the kitchen. He entered the kitchen expecting to see Tony, but stopped as he met with her dad. The man looked tired and sad. He looked up to as he heard Eddie enter the room and smiled weakly at him. "Good morning, Eddie," he said. "Good morning, Sir."

"Sleep well, I hope?"

"Yes, Sir, I did. Thank you. And you?" Eddie said, trying to melt some of the ice.

"I don't sleep much anymore," Mr. Treviño shrugged, "when you work thirty-six to seventy-two hour shifts you become accustomed."

"What is it that you do, Sir?"

"I'm a head surgeon."

Doctors can afford a place like this? Eddie thought.

"Tony's in the library, she said to tell you she'd wait for you there."

Eddie nodded, "Um, where is the library, Sir?"

Dr. Treviño smiled, "Go down the hall leading to the stairs, into the family room. You'll see a little hallway towards the back of the room, there is only one door, so it'll be hard to miss."

"Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you, Sir."

Dr. Treviño nodded, "You be nice to my daughter, Eddie."

Eddie nodded, "I would not be anything else to her, Sir." With that Eddie turned and headed to the library.

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Eddie found Tony sitting in one of the grandfather chairs in front of the fire place. She had fallen asleep and was scrunched in a tight ball in the chair. Her head was leaning on one of the arms and her black hair fell down the side of the chair and some covered her face.

He walked up to her and leaned down before her on one knee. Her face was peaceful, beautiful. Eddie frowned, her eyelids were red and her eyes looked swollen, as if she had been crying. Eddie gently slid a curl out of her face, caressing her cheek slightly. She let out a sigh and he smiled. Even in her sleep she reacted to him, but those red, swollen eyes of her were bugging him. Why had she cried?

Eddie stood up and stepped out of the library. Once outside he took out his cell and dialed home.

"Hello?" his mother answered.

"Hey mom, it's Eddie."

"Hey sweetie, how's it going?"

"Alright. Mom, I was just calling to let you know that we're going to be running late. We'll be home by ten the latest. The youth want to go grab a bite."

"Okay, honey. You have fun and tell Tony to call her mom."

"Yeah, mom, I'll tell her." Eddie hanged up and dialed Tony's house phone. At the fifth ring her mom picked up, "Hello?"

"Ms. Treviño? Hi, it's Eddie."

"Eddie? Is everything alright, sweetie?"

"Yeah, everything's okay. Tony is a little busy right now and I told her I would call you, we just wanted to let you know that the youth wanted to go get something to eat, so we won't get home 'till later."

"Oh, okay. Just call your mom and let her know. And tell Tony to drive safe, okay?"

"Sure thing, Ms. Treviño." They hung up and Eddie leaned his head against the wall. Tony just seemed too peaceful there in that chair to wake her. He went back inside the library and walked towards Tony. He stopped when he was before her. He watched her sleep and with a hand he gently tucked back another strand of hair that was on her face and Tony let out another little sigh. Eddie smiled, his fingers still lingering on her soft skin.

He went around the library looking at books. There were so many and they varied from every subject. He smiled; Zeek would be right at home in this room. He stopped in front of a worn out copy of Pride and Prejudice. It was an old copy of the text with leather binding. He took the book out of the shelf and opened it. The inside was covered by tick marks. Most of the first page and the inside of the cover were full of those tick marks. He smiled, "It's the number of times I've read the book," Tony said from behind him, covering a yawn. He turned and looked at her. She shrugged and smiled, "Every girl loves Jane Austen. Look at the back, it's full too." Eddie turned the book and opened the back cover and it was full of tick marks too.

"When was the first time you read it?"

Tony laughed, "I think I was eight. My dad gave it to me for my birthday. I fell in love with Jane Austen then and begged him to buy me the rest of her books. We spent that summer trying to find as many Jane Austen books in leather binding. He told me that old books always contained more spirit. It not only had the story I would enjoy, but it had history."

"Did you find them all?"

"We found most. I usually picked some that had a dedication on the inside...they seemed to be more special to me than others."

"Most? So you didn't find them all?"

"I have every Jane Austen book except Persuasion."

"But there aren't many Jane Austen books, why couldn't you find that one?"

Tony shrugged, "We didn't have time. You see, we would look for Jane Austen, but then we would find other books and I would get those. I found a One Hundred Years of Solitude first editionwith a great dedication inside and a beautiful book of Shakespeare's sonnets. So, you could say we diverged from the original task. Plus, I just loved to linger in old bookstores…I love the smell of all those old books." She smiled shyly.

"Sounds like fun. Well, it actually sounds like something Zeek would enjoy, not me."

Tony laughed, "I loved to read as a child, books were…doors to other worlds. I read so much that as you noticed, I was reading high school level books by the age of eight."

Eddie nodded and smiled, "Beautiful and smart." Tony swallowed slowly, "Thank You…Um… Are you ready to go?"

"No need, I called our moms and told them we were going to be late. The youth wanted to go get a bite to eat." Eddie smiled and shrugged, "I didn't want to wake you."

Tony smiled, "Thanks and actually a bite to eat doesn't sound bad. Let's go get something, yeah?"

"Sure."

Eddie placed the book back in its place and followed her out the library, through the front door and into her car. All the while wondering why she had been crying and noticing that she had not said goodbye to her dad.

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"Right this way, please follow me." The hostess at Denny's said as she guided them through the tables to a booth at the back of the restaurant. "Your waiter will be right with you," she told them as she set the menus on the table before them, smiled at them and left.

"That is by far the most polite hostess I have ever had at a Denny's," Eddie said with a smile.

Tony laughed, "Well, we are in La Jolla…can't give people with money a crappy service, now can we?"

"Hmm, I guess we can't. Your father has a beautiful home by the way."

"Yeah, I love that house…" Her phone rang in that minute and she turned to her bag and grabbed it after seeing who it was. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No, go ahead." She nodded and answered.

"Hey, Alex."

Alex? Eddie sat and listened to her side of the conversation.

"No, I'm not at home right now…you haven't called my house, have you?"

"No, no. It's because my mom's asleep and she hasn't been feeling well, so I don't want her to be disturbed."

Eddie gave her a skeptical look and she blushed then gave him a little shrug. She looked cute when she blushed.

"Breakfast? I can't I'm out with a friend."

Is he a boyfriend? A guy she likes? Wait Eddie, Alex can be a girl. Yeah, a girl.

"Lunch? I can't, I'm going over to Mel's house."

"How about doing dinner tomorrow night?"

"Okay, yeah, I'll see you then. Bye, Alex." She hanged up her phone with a little smile. "Sorry about that."

"Who's Alex?"

"He's a friend from church. I've known him pretty much all my life."

It's a "he."

"Is he your boyfriend?"

Tony smiled, was he jealous? She shook her head slightly at him. "He's just a good friend."

Eddie nodded his head slightly and returned his attention to the menu. Tony's smile widened a little but quickly disappeared. She had made up her mind last night.

"Good morning! My name is Ginny and I'll be you waitress today. Are you guys ready to order?"

Tony looked up at the woman standing before them and placed her order.

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Tony parked outside Eddie's house and turned off her engine. She turned in her seat to look at him. "Thanks Eddie. You were right, I had a great time," she told him with a smile.

Eddie frowned at her. That was all she was going to say? "Tony…"

Oh God, please Eddie. Just get out of the car.

"Tony, I would like to talk—"

"We've been talking all night, Eddie. I'm sorry, but I really need to get going. I haven't slept and I have to meet my friends later."

Could you have been any ruder? Tony kicked herself inwardly.

Eddie's frown deepened. He turned his sight to his guitar in the back and then back to her and nodded. He met her eyes and smiled, "Well, we can talk later. We have another gig next week and I don't know when my punishment will be lifted."

Tony returned his smile, "Sure. Well, um, thanks again. Say hi to your mom for me, yeah?"

Eddie nodded and smiled. Her cheeks had turned red and that reassured his doubts a bit. "Sure thing Tony, you drive safe." He got out of the car, took out his guitar from the back and walked up to his house.

Tony sighed and watched him go in through the back. Turning on her engine she drove home, she had a lot to tell Mel and Adie today.

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for not updating in a while but I've been really, really busy with, well...life. Plus, that's not having to mention that my computer crashed, so I now find myself without a computer...I know, torture!

Anyways, here is the next chapter. To be honest I don't really like a lot...above everything I'm dealing with a serious case of writer's block...but I'm forcing myself to write so please bear with me. Perhaps the next several chapters won't be very good and interesting but trust me, there is an unexpected twist coming and the story will pick up from there. Promise. Thanks again!

Oh! and please, now, more than ever I need you guys to PLEASE REVIEW MY STORY!