"Non, I didn't. I didn't… miss… you… at…. all…" Her sentence is punctuated with small kisses she eagerly lays everywhere on his face, his neck, the bit of chest she's managed to bare by bursting the first button of his shirt… not caring that it's her who will have to sew it back later.
She stops and looks at him. While he's given her his short and almost official report about his absence and Cort's return, although she felt deeply happy to know that Cort is back… and John too, she had the feeling that there was more behind all this than he said. But she also feels that, right now, he's in need of something… something that she can and wants to give him: tons of loving… and maybe some fun too? They both need it.
A big playful smile appears on her face. "Want to know what I've been up to? Well, Max gave me a few days off… precisely while you were away, bad timing, hey? So, as I was getting bored and lonely, and was starting to think you had already forgotten me, I spent my days flicking through magazines and scanning classified ads to find another husband-to-be. But no luck…" She becomes serious again and, after having kissed it once more, more tenderly this time, she rests her head on his chest. "I didn't find any that could ever be even an ounce of the man you are to me. I missed you, John Biebe. Enormément. (hugely)
Tomorrow is my last day off… and I can't see a better way of spending it than snuggled up with my fiancé all day long, giving him the tender loving care he deserves."
But she's disappointed to hear him say that, as much as he would love it, he can't. Tomorrow he has to go visit a bar, a private place he's been reported by his deputies to have special events on Friday night that got rather 'hot' lately. He must go there to make sure that there isn't anything illegal, and as soon as he can, before anyone got killed. But of course, he can't tell her more, as each time he talks about his work.
Yes, she can't help feeling deeply and selfishly disappointed. But she also understands and respects his lifestyle. This is part of him, part of the man she admires and loves, unconditionally. If she's going to share his life forever, she must accept the space his duty is always going to take in it. She's always admired people who put themselves in danger to save other people's lives… or at least to make them feel safe, but she's never envied their wives. But then, they weren't married to John Biebe, were they? And that, THAT makes all the difference!
But that won't make of her a Penelope patiently waiting home for her Ulysses. Well she will, but she's certainly not going to knit, weave or whatever each time he's gone. She intends to also do something with her own life.
"Okay, then I'll stick to the plans I had made before, not knowing when you would come back home. While you're away tomorrow, I'll go to Egan and East's place. They're kindly lending me a horse so I can go and look for the best places for my beehives.
But… in the meantime… we still have the night left, have we? So, there's not a moment to lose, as would say our dear Jack. What about doing what we both love to do together and have missed so much lately…
… playing Monopoly?..."
She shrieks and runs away laughing while he throws a cushion at her and runs after her.
"
