HOT SUMMER NIGHT
The night after the 'lemonade incident,' Mackenzie was unsurprisingly sleeping over once again. She had certainly made me very angry and wary that day, but again, teenagers do stupid things sometimes. I would remain alert, but if Tracie wanted her friend to spend the night as she had so often that summer, I wasn't going to make any trouble over it. I went to bed while the girls were watching a movie on the couch.
I did miss my own movie nights with Tracie, cuddling and giggling. But I reminded myself that I was the one who pushed my stepdaughter to shift her attentions to someone else.
It was especially hot and humid that night. The air conditioning couldn't quite get the house comfortable. With that, and my wondering about Mackenzie's pass at me (and whether I had overreacted), I slept lightly at best, occasionally hearing the movie from the family room. The girls must have started a second one, because it was very late.
I laid uncomfortably in the heat, drifting in and out of sleep, until I finally decided to get a cold drink. There was still lemonade in the refrigerator.
Not wanting to disturb the girls, I quietly walked through the house toward the kitchen.
Passing by the family room, I first glanced at the movie, which looked unremarkable. But when I saw what was happening on the couch, my breath stopped.
In the dim light of the TV screen, I saw Tracie kneeling upright, facing sideways toward the armrest - nearly facing me. Bizarrely, a foot stuck up by her head. My daughter was naked, and between her breasts, she was holding onto Mackenzie's raised leg.