Heroes...And The Rest Of Us.

A couple hours later I'm sitting on the couch in the living room, by myself with Mabel, reading a book that Billie gave me about Buddhism. Adam, Jack, and Nikki, are all still out on the deck hanging out.

I shut the book and grab a notepad that I was writing some song lyrics in earlier, and hold it in my lap, reading some of the things that I wrote down.

"Babe, I'm hungry!" I hear Adam yell to me through the open living room windows. I look over my shoulder and see him rocked back in his chair smoking a cigarette. All I've smelled all day is the three of them smoking.

"What would you like me to do about that, my love?" I say softly, turning back to look at my notepad. He doesn't say anything.

A second later, I hear him come in the house. He comes over to the couch and crawls on top of me, grabbing the notepad from me and tossing it on the coffee table.

"Kiss?" he says. I smile and take his face in my hands, and kiss him.

"Come on, we're gonna go out to dinner with the kids," he says, getting up from the couch and looking at Jack and Nikki out on the deck.

"Are you sure you want to go out? I can make something if you want to stay home," I say.

"No, it's fine. Let's go!" he shouts so that Jack and Nikki can hear him, then he grabs my hands and pulls me up off the couch.

"Babe! You're going to break me!" I whine as Jack and Nikki come in from the deck, holding hands.

"I am not, now let's go," he says, dragging me towards the front door.

"You don't expect me to go out without shoes on, do you?" I say to him. He looks down at my feet and rolls his eyes.

"Then go put some shoes on, Babe!" I laugh at him and run into the bedroom to put some flip flops on.

I grab my wallet and follow them all out the door, then jump in the passenger side of Adam's Tahoe. We pull into a restaurant called Two25, and park. Jack and Nikki get out of the car first, and Adam and I hang back a little.

Adam grabs my hand and pulls me close to him, ducking his head down close to mine.

"I have something planned for these jokers, just play along, OK?" he says quietly.

"OK." He starts walking a little faster and swings our hands back and forth. I roll my eyes and smirk to myself as we walk inside.

The hostess sits us down and takes our drink order, then goes back to the kitchen. I lean forward in the booth a little, and I feel Adam place his hand on the small of my back which became exposed when I leaned forward and my shirt rose up. I look at him, leaning back against the back of the booth, totally relaxed, and smile at him.

"OK, so I think it's time that the four of us all had a little talk. I've spent all day with you two, and I have to know what the hell is going on with you? I mean, seriously. Lay it all on me," Adam says to Jack and Nikki. They both look up at him like they're shocked that he said anything at all, then they look at each other before saying anything.

"What do you mean?" Jack finally says, obviously uncomfortable.

"Like, are you serious? You're obviously together in some sense of the word. I just want to know what sense? Are you going to date each other, are you going to get married? Live together? What?" It's obvious that he's enjoying this. I prop my elbows up on the table while he lightly scratches my lower back.

"I don't really know. We've talked about moving in together. But, getting married, that seems like a lot, so soon, you know?" Nikki says, taking a sip of her soda. Adam nods at her, then gets a look on his face that I know well.

"I think it would be fun to get married, someday. If I were going to do it, I'd do it young, ya know? Why wait? I'm not gonna live forever," Jack says.

"Well, I have to tell you something about marriage, Jackie boy. It's not all it's cracked up to be. You have to wake up next to the same person for the rest of your life, you have to see her before she's got all that make up on, and her hair's doing scary things," he says. I look down at the table to try to keep from laughing.

"Yeah, one day, you'll be laying in bed thinking that everythings great, and then you realize. Is that his feet that smell like that? I mean, that's fucking rank, ya know?" I add. Adam nods, solemnly.

Jack and Nikki both have wide eyes.

"And, I mean, once you're married there's no going back. Your dick is off the fucking map, ya know? I don't care what hot piece of ass walks by you, you have no chance with that because you have a wife," Adam says to them. I cock an eyebrow at him and he gives me a large smile. I roll my eyes.

"I thought you guys loved being married?" Jack says, looking a little suspicious of us.

"We do. Marrying Sophie is one of the best things I've ever done," Adam says.

"And, vice versa," I say, nodding.

"Then, what's up with all this hating on marriage?" Adam sighs and places both of his hands on the table in front of him.

"I'm just saying it's not just hot sex all the time, OK?!" he says a lot louder than necessary.

There's a long silence in the whole room, and I can feel people staring in our direction. I close my eyes and look down at the table, shaking my head. Once I can hear other people talking again, I look back up. Jack and Nikki are both as red as the devil, and Adam has the biggest shit eaten grin on his face that I've ever seen.

"Well it's not," he says. We both start cracking up.

The waitress comes up to us and asks for our order. After that, there isn't a whole lot of conversation at the table.

When we leave the restaurant, Adam and I once again hang back as we walk to our car. I have both of my arms wrapped around his waist, and he has his arm around my shoulder's.

"Well, that was a successful dinner," he says to me, "I think anyways." I nod.

"At least we can sleep well tonight knowing that they aren't going to be getting married anytime soon."

"Yeah, I think we scared that thought right out of them."

"Great success," I say.

"Great success," he says and we fist bump.

Jack see's us as he's getting in the car, and gives us a dirty look. I just smile at him and get in.

"I think you two should make yourselves scarce tonight," Adam says to them as he drives us back to the house.

"Why?" Jack asks.

"Because I've been hanging out with you two all day, and now it's time for me to spend some private time with my woman. Ya mind?"

"No."

"Exactly. And, it's my house, my rules, anyways," Adam says.

"Fine!" I smirk.

"You are such an ass," I say to Adam.

"Thank you."

When we get home, Nikki takes Jack back to her place and promises to bring him back in the morning before she goes to school.

I sit down on the couch while Adam goes into the bathroom to do something. I lean forward and write some stuff in the notepad that I was writing in earlier. I hear the bathroom door open and hear Adam come out and walk up behind the couch. He jumps over the back of it, putting his legs on either side of my body and starts rubbing my shoulders, reading what I'm writing.

"That feels good," I tell him, setting my pen down and laying my head back against his shoulder. He gives me a kiss on the lips and I put my head back up. He moves so that he's now laying on the couch with his back slouched against the arm of it.

"Come here, woman," he says. I smile and lay in between his legs, resting my head against his chest. He wraps his arms around me and holds our hands together on my stomach.

"I was thinking, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Jack moved in with Nikki," he says. I stay quiet for a second.

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Well, he's been living with us for a while now, and remember when we brought him home from rehab when he told us that it was easy being clean there?"

"Yeah," I say.

"Well, I'm thinking that now, it's easy for him to be clean here. I think he might be feeling like he has to stay here to stay clean, and maybe he needs to be away from here to realize that he can do it away from us, and this place. We can't be his safe place forever, you know?"

"I agree. But, do you think it's too soon? It's only been, like, two and a half months or so."

"I think that he would be fine. He has a job now, he has Nikki, who seems like she really cares about him and keeping him in the good place that he's in. I don't think we should discourage it, is all," he says.

"Mhhhmm." He holds my right hand out and touches the ring I'm wearing, turning it back and forth on my hand.

"Plus, we would have our house, all to ourselves again. That hasn't happened, since like, we got married," he says. I smirk.

"Yeah, that would be nice. I just don't want him to think we're kicking him out, or that he's not welcome anymore."

"We're not kicking him out. He's the one that mentioned moving out. He knows that he will always be welcome here. Even if we had kids, or were old and gray and living in a nursing home, he would be welcome to live off of us." I smack him on the shoulder and laugh.

"I'm joking," he says.

"Mmhhmm," I say.

"I hate it when you say that, cuz I never know if I'm in the doghouse or not," he says. I laugh at him and think about the conversation we had at the restaurant earlier tonight.

"What did you mean when you told Jack that once you're married there's no going back, and that no matter what piece of ass walked by, you can't have it, or whatever?" I ask him.

"Uh... what?"

"Is there some hot piece of ass out there that I need to be worried about?"

"No, not at all. I only have eyes for you, Babe. You know that. I'm not gonna lie though and say that I don't think that there are other hot chicks out there," he says. I feel my eyebrows involuntarily press together.

"But, like I said, my dick is off the map. I only have eyes for you."

"Mhhmmmm."