Fort Worth, Texas

"I want any information you can find out about Sue Ellen Shepard, she's a student at UT Austin, twenty years old and she's the new Miss Texas. I want to know everything and I want to know now."

JR hung up the phone, confident that his connections would get him the information he wanted.

Preparing to return to Southfork, staying in Fort Worth overnight not worth it, his mind was on only one thing, Sue Ellen Shepard. The moment he'd laid eyes on her he'd known she would win, which she had. The pageant had had his attention, but a great deal of his time judging had been spent focused on only one contestant. Later, when he'd spoken to her, he'd felt everything was right and at that point he'd known for sure that his interest was not limited to the semi-professional capacity they'd been introduced in.

Exhausted after a long day and night Sue Ellen's mind raced as she prepared for bed. She was unable and unwilling to put aside thoughts of the pageant and the mystery man.

The man was no longer such a mystery, Mr JR Ewing, an oil baron by all accounts, but she didn't care about his job, she cared about him. There had been something going on, she just didn't know how to describe it. He spoke and she got shivers. He had a commanding presence, it demanded attention and he got that attention. She wanted to know more of him.

She felt a little guilty about how much she'd enjoyed JR's presence and how she wished he could have stayed longer. It wasn't fair to Clint, especially since she knew how much he loved her and she loved him. Unfortunately, that didn't stop her thoughts. It was a problem, but it was a problem for a new day.

Austin, Texas

Arriving back at the sorority house on Sunday afternoon Sue Ellen found a dozen yellow roses waiting for her. Opening the small card, she found writing on both sides, on the left side the lyrics to the 'Yellow Rose of Texas', and on the right side a personal message. 'I meant what I said last night, truly a Yellow Rose of Texas. Congratulations darlin' –JR Ewing.'

Smiling to herself as she walked upstairs, flowers in hand, Paula met her at the door to their shared room.

"I know that look, somebody is lovesick. So, who are the flowers from? No wait, let me guess, the very handsome, very wealthy, very determined JR Ewing?"

Sue Ellen could only continue to smile as she handed the card to Paula.

"That's very sweet. Hard to believe with his reputation."

Hearing Paula's words, her full attention was on her roommate now.

"What do you mean by that comment? What kind of reputation does he have and how do you know?"

Paula sat down and leaned against her pillow.

"Sue Ellen, I'm from Richardson, that's about twenty-five minutes from Braddock. Everyone knows of the Ewings, even if you've never actually met them, you know of them. JR is the kind of man who lives by the motto 'work hard, play hard' and he does just that. In contrast, there's his brother Bobby, he's the All American one, he's about our age, football player, popular guy, but nice guy, you know the type. There is another brother, Gary, no one likes to mention him much, actually, I don't even know what happened to him but he has a daughter, Lucy, she's about Kristin's age and she lives with their family. They live at Southfork Ranch, I've never been there, but I've driven past. It's a beautiful, stately white house."

"All I meant by my comment was that JR is known for two things, business and women. He's ruthless but gets things done and enjoys the company of many women. It's not necessarily a bad thing, we're surrounded by men like that right here, but I just can't imagine him being romantic like that card indicates he can be, or even the way he was last night, he was very sweet and I can see why you're so infatuated. Maybe there is another side to him, but it's definitely not a side that he often shows publicly."

Listening, Sue Ellen sat down on the edge of Paula's bed. She believed her friend, she had no reason to lie, but with that came mixed feelings.

"Last night, we made eye contact a number of times…"

"Mhm, I was there, you two couldn't keep your eyes off of each other. Clint wouldn't stop talking about it on the drive back."

Interrupting her, Paula comment didn't surprise her, although that hadn't been what she'd been referring to.

"No, even before that, during the pageant, he was watching me. We made eye contact and I knew there was something mysterious about him, you can tell a lot about someone through their eyes. JR's eyes seemed to be hiding secrets; secret thoughts, secret desires, things I want to know. I admit I find him very attractive, but I don't want to get hurt and I don't want to hurt anyone. As you said too, Clint was not happy with his attention and wasn't happy with me. He called me this morning to and it turned into a fight about me flirting with JR. I was not flirting with him, I was being friendly..."

Giggling, Paula's reaction indicated she thought otherwise.

"Uh Sue Ellen, you didn't see yourselves from an outside perspective, you two were definitely flirting, it may not have been spoken, but the feeling was there."

"What am I going to do? I'm engaged to Clint but can't stop thinking about JR. I thought it would go away after the pageant, I'd never see him again, but he's sending me flowers with sweet notes and I'm enjoying it."

Moving closer, Paula said nothing, just hugged her. There wasn't a clear answer to the question she found herself facing.

Dallas, Texas

Sitting beside the Southfork pool, JR reviewed the file marked 'Sue Ellen Shepard', a re-read as he couldn't seem to get her off his mind.

He'd already started his pursuit, an order for a dozen yellow roses to be sent to her sorority house daily. He assumed she wouldn't call him after the first delivery, a polite thank you note might be all he could expect, however the subsequent flowers and messages were sure to put her in the same state he was, unable to forget him.

A plan was in place and he didn't intend to abandon it until she was his.

Waiting was the key. If he moved too fast then he ran the risk of losing her because he was coming on too strong, but if he slowly built up to her affections then there was no way she could say no to a 'simple' dinner with him.

Frowning as his eyes settled on the name Clint Ogden, Sue Ellen's boyfriend, he let himself dwell on the misery the words brought him for only a few moments.

If Sue Ellen loved this Clint then that was a problem, however he could already see an alliance forming between he and Mrs Shepard, which might be exactly what he needed to move Clint Ogden out of the picture, love or not.

He'd heard the way Mrs Shepard had perked up at the name Ewing, and considering Billy Frampton had escorted Sue Ellen he had a good idea of what motivated the older woman. There was little question that Sue Ellen's mama would be happier seeing her daughter become Mrs JR Ewing or Mrs Billy Frampton than Mrs Clint Ogden, which left only what Sue Ellen herself wanted.

Considering Billy had only escorted Sue Ellen and they weren't dating, he had to assume marriage wasn't on the cards as far as they were concerned, but what she had with Clint was less clear. He knew what he'd experienced with her and he had to believe she'd experienced it too, which was exactly why he didn't intend to give up before she was his, because he believed she would be.