Falling For Mischief - Book One in The Hollywood Gambles Series {UNDER EDITING}

23 - ..... What Can't Be Fixed

Tom's P.O.V.

 "She won't even listen to me." I say as I walk back over to the couch and once again sit between the two brothers.

"That's just the way she works." Liam states.

"What do you mean?"

"It's her way of dealing with what has happened. A lot of the time she won't listen to anyone. She locks everyone out and sometimes it can take a while for her to start listening to someone. Especially if she believes that that someone is to blame in the first place."

"Gee. That helps." I reply sarcastically. "But I did nothing wrong why can't she see that?" 

"Your lookin' in the wrong place my boy." Craig spoke up and turned the tv off despite the pleas from Luke to keep it going.

"The wrong place?"

"Yeah. You have to look at it as she see it. Look at this situation from her eyes and figure out where it went wrong."

"I could probably do that without having to look at it through her eyes. It's all Jade's fault too. I swear though that I would never do anything to hurt her."

"Oh i know that. I see it in your eyes. By the look of things though she may have hooked back up with Monty fella again due to the little tiff that you two had."

"I guess then there is nothing i can do about that then is there?"

"That's not entirely true. Monty is a fine fella, but last time they were together it didn't last."

"She told me about that. She said that they called off the wedding."

"What wedding? He never proposed to Lani. At least not that we know of."

"She just said that they called it off because they weren't ready for that step."

"What a load of bullshit. Monty is a two timer. Always has been and always will be. He had said that he was changed when he first met Lani but i guess he wasn't. He was cheating on her Tom. She was broken-hearted."

"I didn't know."

"None of us did until he came clean about it after 2 months of cheating on her. To make matters worse, it was to her best friend."

"Sammy?!"

"Yep. Young Isabelle is Monty's."

"Why didn't she say anything?" By this time everyone else had migrated out of the lounge room and it was only me and Craig sitting in the lounge room.

"Would you want to talk about it if a your girlfriend cheated on you with a close friend?"

"I guess not."

"Lani is strong-willed that's for sure. She has seen her share of problems and quite frankly I'm surprised she went back to Monty after what he did." I was unsure of how to process all this. I looked at the coffee table and then back at Craig. 

"What do I do about it? How can I win her back?" He smiles at me.

"You have got to be the only guy she has dated that is willing to go through hell and back to win her over even when he has done nothing wrong. Come." He stands and walks out to the backyard and i follow him. "Take a look at the concrete along the edge of the porch and tell me what you see." 

I look at the concrete and concentrate for a moment before i notice that there are patterns of a sort along the edges. I furrow my brows and walk over before crouching down and getting a closer look. "Footprints?" I look at Craig who is now crouched down at my level.

"Yep. Every year we placed another set of her footprints in the concrete. This concrete porch took 14 years to complete because of the way we did it. But every year from when we adopted her at the age of 6 months till she was 15 we got her to put her footprint into the wet concrete and let it set with those prints to show how she grew."

I ran my fingertips over the first set of prints and there were words written underneath it. 'Laylani E. H. 1985 6 months old' "What does the 'E' initial stand for?"

"Emily." I smile. Laylani Emily Hemsworth. Has a nice ring to it.

"Craig! Tom! Dinner!" Leonie shouted

"Coming!" Craig shouted back. "Come on. Let's go eat." We stand and walk into the dining area. Lani and the 3 brothers are already seated. Leonie is bringing out a casserole or sorts as Craig and i walk in. 

"Smells delicious." I sit down between Lani and Luke a bit awkwardly but Lani seems to be in her own world as we sit and start to eat.

"May I be excused?" Lani whispers.

"Aren't you hungry?" Leonie asks.

"Not really. I just need to space to think. I'll just be out the back." Leonie nods and Lani gets up and walks out the back door. I watch her go through the door and then look at Craig. He nods his head towards the door. I look at everyone else and they do the same thing. I sigh and excuse myself before getting up and walking out the door and slowly over to where Lani sat.

"I am sorry, you know that right Lani?" 

"I know. But I've already had to deal with being cheated on before and I wasn't sure that I could deal with it again."

"So then what happens now?"

"I guess we can start out as friends and then go from there. I'm in a relationship with Monty again and i can't just drop him like that. Can we be friends?" She looks up at me with  glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"Of course. We can be friends if that is all you want to be. Just know i'm here if you ever need someone to talk to."

"I know. It is just hard trying to fix something that can't be fixed. Or at least something that can't be fixed so easily. Just tell me one thing. Did you sleep with Jade?"

"Heavens no! Why would I do that? Lani i was still - I am still in love with you i would never betray your trust like that. But if friends is all you wish to be for the time being than friends we shall be."

"I'd like that. Thank you Tom." She smiles at me and we just sit on the back porch watching the sun set. A beautiful sunset for a beautiful woman. I smile at the thought and just think how things may have been different if i could have taken Lani with me. Maybe i would never have met Jade and this whole situation could have been avoided. Maybe....

A/N: How's that! A triple update and this story has over 1000 reads, thank you guys so much! :) Anyway, hope this chapter was good enough. Tom and Lani are at least on speaking terms but they aren't in a relationship. However things will change. I promise. Tell me what you think :)

~Z