Dallas, Texas

"Tonight?" responding to JR's request, Sue Ellen's surprise was clear in her tone of voice, though so was her excitement. It had been a long time since she had played hostess and she was genuinely looking forward to using some of her domestic skills for their intended purposes, even if the timeframe was a bit tight. She was more mature now than she had been as a teenager and stepping back to focus was a skill she had acquired over the past few years. In this case, even though JR had dropped the plans on her only hours in advance, she wasn't as stressed as she once would have been; she knew she wasn't entertaining anyone who was going to be mentally assessing her, and even if they were, she had enough domestic assistance to cover her weak spots.

"Is eight the confirmed number?" querying her husband for finer details and to assess how much conversation had actually occurred before he had phoned her, she was pleasantly surprised when JR responded with comments indicating that he had actually spoken to both Bobby and Jack and that each man had confirmed their attendance. They could hardly have a celebratory dinner for Jack without him, and with Bobby's social life picking up recently, with and without Pamela, it wasn't necessarily a good idea to assume anything. "Great, I'll speak to Francisca", leaving her comments vague as to not weigh him down with small details he didn't really need or want to know, her ears pricked up at his response. "Good, good. I trust you'll assist everything falling into place", hearing his words, it was his tone that brought her back to a surprised frame of mind. Knowing her husband, their spontaneous dinner party was not simply a social invitation, there was something else going on in his mind, he wasn't exactly transparent about what that was though.

"JR? Is there anything I need to know before I go ahead and prepare things?" Curious about his motives for wanting to celebrate Jack's new job, because he had made no secret of his opposition to bringing Jack into Ewing Oil and his general suspicions about his presence in Dallas, even though he had drunkenly admitted he didn't actually mind his cousin, she asked, knowing though that he may not show his cards just yet. "No darlin', nothing more than we've already discussed. Jack's part of the family now and you know how I feel about family…" Listening to his response, she was more confused than enlightened; he was protective and proud of the Ewing family, but he had never been the type to freely celebrate other people's achievements and she didn't really know or understand what had spurred him to start now.

"I do know how you feel about family, that's what's got me confused… We can talk about it when you get home though", knowing she would have an easier time getting an answer out of him in person rather than over the phone, she didn't push the issue too much. Even if JR said otherwise though, to her it was strange that he was suddenly taking the lead when it came to family activities, that just wasn't him; business leadership and control was one thing, but willingly spending more time with the family than he had to was another. She wasn't complaining though, she enjoyed family time when everyone got along and had a good time; the only problem was, she wasn't completely sure that that was what JR was planning.

From JR's perspective, happy family time for everyone else usually meant his parents overhyping everyone else's achievements while underappreciating his successes and contributions to conversations. Things were beginning to change with Miss Ellie, but she doubted JR was so quick to forgive past mistakes and forget the way things had been for so long. With Jock too, she wasn't entirely sure anything had changed and that made JR's plans even more questionable. If he wasn't going to tell her at this moment in time though, she would just have to wait and see what was going on later; they would have a bit of time between his arrival home after work and the family arriving and she intended to use that time to find out what was really going on.

"Don't you trust me darlin'?" hearing him chuckle, she was left with no doubt about her earlier thoughts, the family dinner JR had invited everyone to was more than a simple celebration; he had something up his sleeve, but he wasn't exactly forthcoming with the details of his plan. "Of course I trust you. I know you too though and everything about this situation piques my interest. I'm happy to prepare our home for guests, especially family, you know I'm a completely willing participant in building respectful relationships with your family, so the dinner party itself is not a problem. What I'm trying to get at though is I know you well enough to know when you have another set of plans being set in motion in the background, like you do now. I'd really like to know what those plans are so that I'm not caught off guard tonight, but if you don't want to tell me the details, at least let me know if I should be prepared for some kind of showdown. I'll let Francisca know not to set the table with our wedding china if you're anticipating anything less than a pleasant evening".

Explaining to him that she really just wanted to know what to be prepared for, because she was the party hostess, not to mention his wife, she knew she had been a bit dramatic in her language when he responded to her queries with even more dramatic language. "Sue Ellen, relax. You can wear white if you wish, I have no plans for the evening to end a bloodbath and if there is any kind of showdown it'll be a war of words, not anything physical, or at least not on my part. I can't speak for Bob, he's always been a bit of a brawler, I'm sure he's got enough manners not to break our wedding china though". Laughing again as he spoke, she still wasn't completely sure exactly what his motives for the evening were, however, his comments had given her more of an idea of what he thought about things. It was possible he did intend to enter the evening without a pre-picked argument, however, he wasn't counting out the possibility of things heading south; even then though, their newly renovated home and their bodies were relatively safe, they were hosting a dinner party for civilised adults, not a bunch of savages, everyone knew how to behave in polite company.

"Ok, wedding china it is then. I'll start working on the plans now", responding in a brief but friendly manner, she was pleased when JR responded in kind, "thank you darlin'. I'll see you tonight". Confirming a few things, they then said their goodbyes and ended their phone call, leaving Sue Ellen to do as she had said and get to preparing for the evening ahead.

To be continued…