Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

I can feel my bed shaking. What the hell? I roll over and I see Adam, he's the source of the shaking. He's kind of laying on his stomach, but I can't tell what he's doing. He looks at me and smirks.

"Hey, babe." He says.

It's right then that I see the other girl underneath him, and I realize what he's doing. My heart stops beating. They both laugh at me.

"No, stop." I say. They keep laughing."No." I say again.

The girl starts screaming with pleasure and Adam is still laughing.

"No, stop it!" I scream. And then I wake up.

My heart is beating 100 miles an hour. I'm sweating, and I'm trying to figure out if I screamed out loud and if Mike is going to run in to see what's wrong with me. When no one comes running, I roll over and see that Adam's side of the bed is empty. I reach across and grab his pillow and bring it up to my face. It smell's just like him, his soap, his shampoo, his cigarettes, his sweat. I lay there for a moment and think about the dream. I had the same dream when he was on tour the last time, but those were different circumstances. We werent even speaking then. I'm not worried that he's going to cheat on me. I'm more worried about the drugs, I saw how quickly people are willing to put that shit in your hands when you're on the road. But I doubt he would do that with Roo and James on the bus.

I look at my alarm clock. 8:00 in the morning. The bar doesnt open until noon, but I told Tripp to meet me there at nine so we could train without a bunch of people there. I get up and go to the bathroom to shower. When I'm done I put my robe on and start coffee in the kitchen. Charlie wakes up from his slumber on the couch when I walk through the living room. He jumps down from the couch and shakes out his body. I escort him to Mike's room so that he can finish sleeping in peace.

I get dressed in black skinny jeans, and the black 3/4 sleeved shirt that has the bar logo on it. I put my short hair up into as much of a ponytail as I can, and tuck the stray peices underneath a black scarf. I grab my purse and put on my black trench coat and walk out the door.

When I arrive at the bar, I park next to Tripp's car. Our's are the only one's in the parking lot. I see him sitting on the curb next to the front door waiting for me, since Sully and I and the owners are the only one's with keys.

"Good morning, Tripp Lee." I say approaching him.

"Morning." He put's out his cigarette and follows me inside. We take our coats off and clock in.

"First things first." I say to him."We need to work on your accounting skills."

"OK, then what?"

"Then I have to make some calls about wedding stuff before we open."

"Cool."

We work on the accounting and I teach him how to doccument the money properly. When we're done, we sit at the bar and I call some place's that might have potential to be our wedding location. I call my mother's country club first.

"Hi, do you rent out the green or the dining hall for wedding's by any chance?" I ask the woman who answers.

"No."

"Oh, OK. Thanks anyways." I hang up.

"This sucks." I tell Tripp.

"What about a church?" He asks.

"We kind of wanted to get married outside, then have the reception outside."

"So, no to the church thing?"

"I don't know what church we would use. Plus if we do that we would have to rent another place for the reception. Meaning more money."

"That's true." My phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I was looking into some locations for the wedding." My mother again.

"OK." She names off some hotels and churches, and another country club.

"And what about the mansion dear?" She asks.

"Uh...what mansion?"

"Adam's parent's mansion."

"I don't know, Mom. I would doubt if Adam would be into that."

"Well, it would save you alot of money."

"Probably, I don't know. I have to talk to Adam about it."

"You should."

"I will. I have to go now, and call about flower's and invatations and shit. Sorry."

"Have fun. Call me if you need any help."

I call the place that's going to do the invatations and they tell me that I need a color scheme and a guest list before they can start.

"This is going to be alot more work than I anticipated. Can't I just tell people to show up and sit the fuck down?" I say to Tripp when I get off the phone. He laughs.

"Dude's are lucky we don't have to worry about flowers and colors and shit like that."

I ponder that thought for a moment.

"And what will I wear?" I say dramatically. My phone rings again. It's Liv this time.

"Oh my God. I found the most perfect house for you and Adam." She says when I answer.

"What? Where are you?"

"It's walking distance to the lake, right down the hill in fact is Highland Park."

"Liv, that has to be outrageously expensive. Highland Park is the most ritzy lake subdivision in town."

"Yeah, but it's not actually in the park. And it doesnt come with any lakefront so that keeps it's price down alot."

"Is it a dump?" Knowing Liv, she probably found a one room shack that looks good on the outside only.

"No! It's beautiful. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, single level with a full basement. It's kind of built in the side of a hill. And it has a big garage."

"What's the asking price?"

"80 thousand."

"Holy shit. I know that's really reasonable for that area, but damn that's a big number."

"Billie's here with me."

"Where exactly is it?"

"Right down the road from the golf course."

"What does Billie think of it?"

"She loves it."

"Is there a realator I can call?"

"Yeah, she's here right now."

"You called the realator out there?! Liv, are you insane?"

"No, you have to come down here and check this place out. Where are you?"

"I'm at work."

"Doing what? The bar doesnt open until noon."

"I'm training Tripp." I look at Tripp. He's trying to juggle the shakers and bottles like he's some bigshot bartender. He drop's one of the bottles and it shatters. He looks at me with a look that's begging for help. I point at the broom in the corner.

"How's that working for ya?" She asks.

"Fine, I'll come. What's the address?" She give's me the address and I tell Tripp to hold tight until I get back. I have an hour to get there and check the place out before we open. I race down the twisting turning lake roads until I spot the place. I pull in and survey the situation. It's a great house. Nice yard, a little bit of woods around the back and in between the neighboring house's, big garage. I get out and greet my sister and Billie, and introduce myself to the realator. She take's us inside and shows us around.

"It comes with all working appliances, and the basement is soundproofed." The realator tell's us.

"Soundproofed?" I ask.

"Yes. The previous owners had it set up as an apartment for their son."

"Is it a mess down there?"

"Not at all. Everything is in perfect condition." She shows us the second bedroom, which is smaller than the master, but it has a big walk in closet.

When we're done touring the house, I'm feeling very excited. I know that Adam will love it.

"I have to talk to my fiance, and I can't make an offer on it until he get's home next week." I tell the realator.

"That's fine. I guarantee you that if your fiance loves it, it will be yours. We havent had a lot of offer's on this house."

We all go out to our cars after she gives me a stack of paperwork for the house. On my way home, I get a call from Adam.

"Hey babe, what are you doing?" He asks.

"On my way back to work from looking at this amazing house." I tell him all the details about the house.

"I can't wait to get home and see it, and see you. I miss you so fucking much."

"I miss you too."

"How's the wedding planning going?"

"Oh yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. How do you feel about getting married at your parent's mansion? It was my mom's idea, it's totally your decison." He's silent on the other end.

"Hello? Babe, are you there?"

"I'm here."

"What do you think? If it make's you uncomfortable we dont have to do it. It was just a suggestion, it would save alot of money."

"Not the mansion. Not for the ceremony. They have a cabin that's right next to the river though, that might be an option."

"This time of year might be too cold for a beach wedding, because that was another option."

"We could do the ceremony on the beach and have the reception at the mansion. That place was built for huge parties."

"That's a good idea. I'll make some calls and see what I can do. Having the reception at your parents place would save us a shit ton of money."

"Yeah it would. We just have to think about transportation from the beach to the mansion."

"We could rent a couple limo's."

"A couple? How many guest are we having?"

"Not alot. My family minus Brayden, because he shipped out two weeks ago. Your family, your band, Daisy, Tobin, The Hinder guys, and of course guests for all those people. I'll invite Sully and Tripp, but I don't know if they'll come. I don't really want every long lost cousin and their brother at the wedding, ya know?"

"Sounds good to me."

"This has been a very productive conversation."

"Yes it has. Tobin called and left a message saying that the wedding bands were delivered and that he was going to bring them over to you sometime."

"Yay! I'm excited. This has been alot of fun all this wedding shit."

"Shit, babe?" He says with a laugh.

"Yes, shit."

"How's work going?"

"Same old, same old. I've been here for two weeks and Tripp is basically untrainable, but he tries hard. We arent in the hole anymore so Sully is happy."

"Well, as long as he's happy. Meanwhile, I want to kick his ass for taking my fiance away from me."

"How have the show's been going? How is everyone? How are the kids?" I pull into the bar parking lot and we talk for an hour. When I finally go inside, the bar is still empty. Tripp looks at me and then looks at the clock on the wall.

"I can't believe you left me like that."
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Just over a week later, I'm at my house alone. Adam's coming home today, So Mike took Charlie over to my parent's place to we could have some private time to reunite. I lean against my kitchen counter, drinking a glass of Arnold Palmer, watching out the window for his tour manager's car to pull in the driveway.

I'm wearing faded jeans that have a rip that goes from my left thigh down to just below my knee, and a little black t-shirt that has the word 'mean' on the front. I look at the time, 4:30. They should be here anytime now. At 4:36, I see the car pull in. I run as fast as I can, barefooted outside and stand on my front porch.

Adam gets out of the back passenger side of the car with a duffle bag in each hand. He say's goodbye to whoever else is in the car, and turns and starts walking towards the house. He has on a black hoodie thats unzipped to reveal a white t-shirt, and jeans, with a black cap on his head. He walks up the front steps and drop's his bags at his sides.

"I'm finally home,babe." He says, giving me a tight hug. I put my face into his chest and just breathe him in. He rests the side of his face on the top of my head. We stand there like that for about two minutes. When we finally seperate, he take's my face in his hands and kisses my lips softly.

"Are you hungry? Can I make you something to eat?" I ask when we finish kissing.

"I just want to take a shower and sleep for twenty four hours, and when I wake up I want to see your beautiful face smiling at me."

"So, is that a no to the food?"

"That's a yes to the food, I'm starving."

"OK, lets go inside. It's freezing out here."

When we go inside, he goes straight to the shower and I start dinner, Shrimp scampi over linguine. By the time Adam comes out of the shower, the whole house smell's like garlic, butter and lemons. I feel him come up behind me while I'm sauteing the shrimp. He kisses my throat and rubs his hands on my stomach.

"Congratulations, you're officially Italian by marriage." I tell him.

"Ross, isnt an Italian name is it?"

"It was shortened by my Great-Grandfather. It originally was Rosiano."

"Rosiano." He repeats.

"Mmhhmm." He walks over to the coffee table in the living room, where I have every wedding plan and real estate information pamphlet scattered on it surface. I turn off the burner under my shrimp and follow him.

"This," I tell him, holding up a peice of paper that has our three pictures from the photography shoot on it. The paper has a dark pewter background with some black filgree designs on it. "Is our wedding invatation."

"Nice." He takes it from me and looks at the inside.

"The ones that actually went out to people had a peice of black lace over the pictures on the front." He nods and sets it down.

"This is a picture of the cake and this is a picture of my bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets." I show him another picture.

"What flavor is the cake?"

"Two teirs are pumpkin, and the little one on top is going to be chocolate." He nods again and yawns.

"You're tired arent you?" I say to him. He shakes his head up and down a little. I can see in his eyes that he's exhausted.

We eat dinner and leave the mess when we're done and go straight to bed. I wake up in the morning and take care of everything and do the dishes. I check my phone for message's because I shut it off lastnight. One message from Daisy, one from Mike and one from the limo rental company. I can call them all back later.

I crawl back into bed with Adam and fall asleep again. I have good dreams this time. Maybe things will finally start going right for us when we're married. I wake up before Adam, but I lay in bed and wait for him. He finally wake's up at 7 p.m. I smile at his sleepy face.

"I've waited too long to see that face when I wake up." He says.

"I'm so glad you're here. I had nightmares the other night about you being on the road without me."

"Thank you for waiting. I promise it will be worth it, babe."