Using Font Awesome for submenus (_s theme)

Hi! I’ve been trying to build my own theme with WAMP. I used the _s starter theme and right now, I’m still trying to style my menu. I want to use font awesome for my dropdown menu. I should have an arrow or a chevron after the text. I was actually able to pull it off using the code below. However, I cannot style it for hovering. Is there a way I can do so? Also, is there another code I can use to integrate the icon right next to the text without using after or before? I also tried using a:hover:after and it works but only when I hover over the icon and not when I hover over the text. They should be together. I hope that makes sense.

.nav-menu li li > a:after {
    color: #ADADAD;
    font-family: fontawesome;
    content: ' \f054';
}

.nav-menu li > a:only-child:after {
    content: '';
}