She got her daddy's tongue and temper
Sometimes her mouth could use a filter
God shook his head the day he built her
Oh, but I bet he smiled.
Lee Brice, She Ain't Right

She smiled brightly as Luke Bryan came on the jukebox in the corner of the bar. Grabbing their drinks, she wiggled her hips a little as she made her way back through the crowd and towards Nathan, Dante and Lulu, passing out the beers. " Nathan, sorry I didn't see any Guiness Dark behind there. Got you regular Guiness." as he eyed her Angry Orchard bottle with a raised brow. "Gotta experiment sometime." Adriana explained as she double tapped the top against the side of the table nearest the pool tables, took a few long sips as she looked at the bottle and commented, "Not too bad."

"Does it taste like apples?" Lulu asked as Adriana held out the bottle to Lulu and said "Find out for yourself, hon." as she took the poolstick from Nathan's hand, chalked the tip and prepared to take a shot at breaking the balls out of their formation.

Nathan chuckled and then said "You wanna break?" as he looked at Adriana when she wasn't watching him. She honestly behaved as if she didn't know he were flirting with her right now. Which was a refreshing change from the girls around here who seemed to always think a guy was hitting on them when in fact the guy had no actual interest in them whatsoever. He spotted his sister slipping into the bar and gave her a wave, she gave him a smirk and a thumbs up as she mouthed 'Told you go for it. Good, you listened'.

"Yeah, I'll break. I mean unless you just think you can do it better?" Adriana challenged playfully as she watched him when he wasn't looking, licked her lips. She liked the guy a lot but she had not a single damn clue how to even start to make a move of any sort. Her mother kept hinting that she got a little 'goofy/giggly' around him, but she'd usually just give Sam a dirty look and ignore it.

Dante nudged Lulu and shook his head to discourage whatever matchmaking scheme she might have in mind for their friends and coughing said aloud, "So, I thought Ethan and Kristina were coming tonight?" which made Adriana feel a little more at ease. At least if her aunt was there she couldn't fuck it up too badly.

"She just texted actually." Adriana answered as she laughed and yelled out to Ethan, "Sup, man! Gonna play us?" as they walked over, joined the crowd around the pool tables. Kristina nudged her niece, nodded to Nathan and asked quietly, "He asked you to hang out here with him tonight?"

"How'd you..."

"Overheard Britt Westbourne, his sister giving him a nudge in that direction." Kristina giggled as she looked at her niece and then asked quietly, "What I'm happiest for is that you finally agreed to hang out with him."

"It's not a date, Aunt Kris.." Adriana muttered, biting her lower lip as she watched Nathan bending, aiming at a red stripe on the pool table, chuckling when he made the ball into a pocket. he turned to her and smirking said "Your turn.. We're gonna team up.. If that's okay? I thought you could team with me, Kristina with Ethan and Lulu with Dante."

"Sounds like a plan." Adriana said casually as she found herself chest to chest with Nathan as Kristina taunted, "And Ethan and I are totally going to beat you guys. Aren't we?" while looking up affectionately at her date, her boyfriend Ethan who chuckled and held a finger to his lips, whispering something into Kristina's ear that made her turn a deep red.

"I don't even wanna know." Adriana laughed as she sipped her beer and aimed at her shot, made it, then tried for another shot and missed. During the game, Nathan kept her laughing, they talked quite a bit. And she realized she was letting her guard down a little more than she would if they went out by themselves.. And that they had a lot more in common than she previously thought.

Ethan nudged Kristina and nodded in the direction of her niece as he chuckled and said "Doesn't look like it's not a date to me. They seem cozy." as Kristina nodded gleefully and slid out her phone as covertly as possible, snapped a picture to send to Sam and her own mother, just so they'd see that Adriana, the stubborn girl she was had finally taken Sam's taunting advice and let Nathan hang out with her for a night after work.

She looked genuinely happy if the truth were to be told.

Sam picked up her phone when it buzzed against her desk and smiled, chuckled as she showed Jason the text picture. Jason grumbled but then said quietly, "I mean it, Sam.. I want to come home. I was an idiot for just thinking we could walk away from each other. I miss you and I miss Danny.. I want our family back.. I want you."

"I want you too, Jason.. But what if we mess things up again?"

"We won't ever know until we try, will we?" Jason asked as he sipped a beer, looked over to where Danny lie sleeping in his playpen. This was home. Sam was his home. Danny was his son. They needed each other and he loved her more than anything else. Sam sighed as she said quietly, "Okay.. We'll try this. But we cannot do things the way we were, Jason. No more secrets. No more letting other people come between us. If this is going to work there can't be any outside interference."

"So.. Adriana finally let the guy take her out?"

"According to Kristina, Jason, my daughter has no idea it's actually a date to him.. She still thinks he just wants to be her friend." Sam said with a laugh as Jason shrugged and said quietly "All I have to say is if that guy hurts her he'll have to deal with me.. I mean I am technically her stepfather, whether she's grown or not."

Sam smiled. Maybe they would be alright this time around, after all.