Chapter Thirty-Nine

The kids greeted Will with particular joy that evening when he arrived in the middle of dinner. It was understandable, because they hadn't seen him since the previous morning, not to mention he hadn't been home for dinner in the last few days. Even Nat, who was normally not even half as enthusiastic as his sister, ran to greet his dad at the door.

Diane was happy to see him as well, the memories of their night had kept coming back to her all through the day. She couldn't remember the last time they had spent such a wonderful time together.

"Missed you," he said, leaning close to her for a kiss and she probably replied more passionately than she should have in front of the kids, but she couldn't help it, she'd missed him too.

The fight had brought them even closer together. It had been hard to say good bye to him in the morning even for a day and the fact that he was home early implied that he might have felt the same way.

"How was work?" she asked him when they all sat back at the table to continue dinner.

'I'd rather not talk about it," he answered eloquently.

She knew he hadn't exactly been happy at the firm lately and not only because of the late hours. There was a reason he had acted so foolishly the previous night, he'd been too frustrated. Maybe their fight had helped to open his eyes, to realize that something wasn't working right.

"Then tell us about your court hearing," Em interfered and the expression sounded so strangely from her mouth that Diane let out a slight chuckle, "Mom said you would tell us about it."

Will sent a questioning look in Diane's direction, who replied with an encouraging smile, it was time for him to do his share of talking with the kids.

"Well it was short and boring, you didn't miss a thing," he shrugged.

"And what about the fight?" Em asked, obviously not satisfied with his short, meaningless reply.

"There was no fight," he shrugged once again and Diane had to cough slightly to remind him that their daughter needed way more specific answers to be satisfied.

"Who won?" Em finally asked the most important question.

"Neither of us did," Will replied to Diane's biggest surprise. He could have gloated with his results, yet he chose to stay diplomatic, "The end is still far away," he looked at Diane as he said that and she really appreciated how he handled it. She didn't feel so bad about losing to him anymore.

Emma seemingly ran out of questions, her father's replies might have confused her, so she continued eating silently.

"I'm hiring a new lawyer this week," Diane broke the silence after a while to keep the conversation going, "I hope she can start as soon as possible, she brings in new clients as well, just what the firm needs right now," she emphasized the pronoun both times and didn't miss Will's reaction.

It was true that her plan to hire Elsbeth had something to do with his sarcastic remarks from the previous day, but not in a way he might have thought. She didn't mean to prove anything with it, she didn't plan to do it for him, she wanted to do it for herself. Because he had been right, she did believe in that women should help women and she felt like Elsbeth could benefit from their work relationship just as much as the firm would benefit from her knowledge and connections.

If additionally her decision to hire a woman also made her husband satisfied, because it proved that she had been listening to him, then it just made her feel even better about it.

o-o-o

"Diane?" he whispered, probably guessing that she might have been asleep already, but she wasn't.

"Hm?" she replied without opening her eyes.

She was in fact very sleepy, they hadn't wasted too much time on that vital activity the previous night after all.

"You're still awake," he said in normal tone this time and lay on the bed next to her.

"Half," she mumbled and turned in his direction slowly, "You do know that woman could find me attractive as well, right?" she said in a sleepy voice and the look on his face was more than worth rolling over for.

"What are you talking about?"

"I have a private investigator, who's gay. What if she took me home one night, would you be jealous of her as well?"

"Are you all right?" Will asked with a confused look on his face and Diane found it really adorable.

"I want to sleep, let me sleep," she finished her line of thoughts and rolled back to her other side, but she soon felt his body pressed against hers.

"You're teasing me even when you're half asleep, how on earth do you do that?"

"It comes naturally," she smiled with her eyes closed.

"Just so you know if you ever feel like bringing in another woman, I don't have any objections."

She couldn't help chuckling, his payback was just as original as her teasing.

"In your dreams."

"So am I allowed to dream about it?" he asked in the same tone.

She finally opened her eyes and turned her head towards him.

"Just so we're clear, the only woman you are allowed to ever dream about is me."

He kissed her right away, implying that he fully accepted her terms then her head fell back on the pillow and she soon fell asleep.