Dallas, Texas

"Please have this framed and placed on my desk next to the photograph of my wife by the end of the day", handing his new favourite photograph to his secretary, JR looked over the stack of messages she had handed him and then walked into his office. "Oh, isn't this photo just adorable, no wonder Mr Ewing is proud, his son is beautiful; the perfect mixture of both Mr and Mrs Ewing", admiring the photograph, a candid of John Ross that had been taken at the perfect moment, capturing his sweet disposition on film, JR's secretary Diane didn't notice the way Julie was looking at her. "I'll have to encourage Mr Ewing to have his wife and son visit office more often", making a comment more to herself than to Julie, Jock's secretary, she then slid the photograph into an envelope to protect it from damage prior to being framed and then placed it neatly in a stack on her desk. A little annoyed that Diane seemed so joyful about JR's life developments and extremely jealous that JR now had everything he wanted and seemed genuinely happy with the way everything was, Julie stood and excused herself for a moment, walking down the hall to the bathroom.

She'd been sure that when Sue Ellen left JR earlier in her pregnancy that their marriage was doomed to fail and JR would be an available man again soon enough, however, much to her chagrin, almost the exact opposite had happened. Taking a few days break from the office on the orders of Jock, she had assumed that JR would do as his daddy said, he would bring his wife and more importantly, his son back to Southfork, but she never expected that it would be an honest move, one that almost completely changed the man she knew. In the past, even when JR was in one of his 'committed husband' moods, she'd always ended up in bed with him again eventually, however, upon returning to Southfork with his wife, everything had changed. JR hadn't looked twice at her in months, now it seemed that he was too into his annoyingly perfect, former beauty queen wife to pay any attention to a lowly secretary like her. He'd been trying to keep to regular work hours too, even when there was actual work to be done; he'd treated his wife to more gifts and gestures than she'd seen since they were dating and in general, he seemed to have more respect for what it meant to be a businessman without being a philanderer. Those were all big changes for him and she'd noticed them almost immediately after he and Sue Ellen reconciled; however, the biggest and most noticeable change to her was the fact that he no longer went through secretaries like calendar pages. It was no coincidence that Diane had joined Ewing Oil at almost the exact time everything else was happening; she was pretty and sweet, but quiet and slightly nerdy and most importantly, happily married. From the few conversations they'd had, Julie suspected that Diane had come top of her class at secretarial school based entirely on her grades, not her ability to bat her eyelids and talk her way out of situation and knowing Jock as well as she did, she had a feeling that that was exactly what he wanted. In fact, he probably would have hired an older woman for JR's new secretary if he weren't so invested in giving their business partners something to admire while they waited in the reception area. Diane was definitely attractive, but she was no threat to JR's marriage and that was really all Jock wanted.

Sitting in his office and catching a glimpse of the photographs on his desk every so often, JR found himself completely content with the way everything was. He had the perfect family, his father was actually honestly proud of him, things were going well for Ewing Oil even though the wider economy was having issues and he was set to become the president of the company soon. The only negative was that it hadn't all happened earlier; he had really messed up in his miscommunication with Sue Ellen in their early marriage and he honestly regretted a lot of the things he had done in the two years they'd been married. He'd married a woman who loved him and wanted to please him and he'd essentially pigeonholed them into living by silly rules for no good reason; he could have had the things he wanted from his wife years ago if he'd just been more open-minded about it and actually communicated with her. She may have been a relatively innocent college girl when they were dating and he couldn't deny that the way she acted like a real lady was part of what originally fed his attraction, however after marriage, there was no reason why she had to remain a meek, mild lady all the time. By not considering that there was any other way for her to act though, he'd almost forced her into acting that way and he definitely regretted it now.

Did he still find other women attractive? Sure, he wasn't blind. He definitely noticed the swing of female hips and appreciated when women chose to wear clothing with necklines that accentuated their cleavage, however, he found himself also seeing his wife in a different way. She had always been the most beautiful woman in Texas and even now, a little heavier and curvier than usual, his opinion was unwavering; she took good care of herself and 80% of that was to appeal to other people, namely, her husband. She'd not shared her entire plan with him, but knowing his wife, he had no doubt that letting herself go was not on her agenda and in five weeks, when she was medically cleared to resume full intimacy again, he wouldn't be disappointed with her, emotionally or physically. As far as he could tell, aside from the small amount of weight she was still carrying and her new cup-size, she didn't appear to have any permanent marks from her pregnancy and with her determination, she would be back to fitting into her old Miss Texas gown in no time. He wasn't her though and although he knew her body pretty well, he knew that she would naturally be displeased with something, it was expected and if he'd learned anything during their almost five years together it was that she got enough criticism from Patricia and her own thoughts and it was always best for him to stay quiet. His advice and comments were welcome in many areas, but when it came to her appearance, compliments were really the only acceptable form of comment; with a beautiful woman like Sue Ellen though, it wasn't too difficult for him, she wasn't unattractive, no matter how she or Patricia often saw things. Hearing a knock on the door and calling out to the person to enter, he grinned as Diane handed him the framed photograph of his son and he placed it down next to Sue Ellen's frame; his father had been right, family really was everything and he finally understood that.

To be continued…