This was turning out to be much more enjoyable than Jocelyn would have thought. She certainly hadn't been looking forward to spending the fourth of July with her stepdaughter Stephanie and the girl's boyfriend. She was still pissed that Robert hadn't taken her to Tokyo with him and left her here to baby sit. Stephanie was hardly a baby--she was 19!

Still, Robert was right not to trust her alone with the house. Especially with that boyfriend of hers. He was obviously a gold digger--it took one to know one--out to bang the CEO's daughter for fun and profit. Did Robert really believe that by not leaving the two of them alone in the house that it was going to stop them from screwing each other silly everywhere else? Robert could be so naive when it came to his little princess.

But things were going much better than expected. Conner was actually quite charming, now that she got to know him. And Stephanie was being such a sweetheart as well! Here she came with another glass of lemonade for her.

"Hey, Jocelyn! You look like you could use another," she said, grinning at her, setting the frosty glass down on the drink stand of her lawn chair.

"Gosh thanks!" said Jocelyn. "These sure are good! Just the thing on such a warm night!"

Conner had made the beverage--frozen lemonade with just a touch of tequila. Robert probably wouldn't approve, but then Robert wasn't here, now, was he. And the whole point of them staying here was so that they wouldn't be out on the street somewhere--if they were going to be drinking, best that they do it at home.

"I guess the fireworks will be starting pretty soon," Stephanie observed, looking down at the parking lot of the football stadium. It was quite full now, with the vehicles of the unwashed masses crowding in to see the fireworks display. It was so nice that they could look down on the city from their backyard and see the full show without having to sit on those hard seats.

Jocelyn took another sip of her lemonade.

"Fireworks are cool," she observed. Stephanie giggled.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"It's a surprise!" her stepdaughter teased, then scurried back into the house to get her boyfriend.

She was a strange girl. She had gotten stranger since she started hanging out with Conner. Still, Jocelyn wasn't going to let it bother her. Nothing was bothering her tonight. She felt so relaxed--more so than she had in weeks. She wondered if there was more tequila in this thing than she thought. Oh well--she had tomorrow off. Might as well enjoy the evening. She took another sip and stretched languorously, wiggling her toes. She had cute toes, she observed. She wrapped a strand of her shoulder-length blonde hair around the index finger of her free hand.

Momentarily, Stephanie reemerged with Conner. They were loaded down with a large quilt, a bunch of snacks, a boom box, and a pitcher of the lemonade. That was fortunate. She was almost done with her second

"You want more lemonade, Jocelyn?"" asked Stephanie and giggled.

"Hmmm?" asked Jocelyn, turning to the dark-haired girl. She had been distracted as Conner bent over to place the quilt on the grass. The boy did have an impressive backside.

"I said, do you want more lemonade!" Stephanie said, although she was already filling her glass.

"Oh, um, yes... thank you Stephanie," she said, blushing as she realized the girl must have seen her checking out her boyfriend's ass. The girl was pouring herself another lemonade and didn't seem at all disturbed by her stepmother's indiscretion. If anything, it amused her. The girl sure was giggly tonight.

Music exploded from the boom box and Jocelyn jumped in her seat. Conner grinned sheepishly at her.

"Sorry," said the young man, "Is it too loud?"

"Fuck no!" exclaimed Stephanie and stared dancing. It was strange music with a thunderous bass line that throbbed and pulsed like a living thing. The guitar squealed and there were strange electronic effects that Jocelyn imagined might have set her teeth on edge had she not been in such an odd mood. As it was, she kind of liked it. Her body pulsed along with the bass and the rest of it just kind of washed over her, tickling her ears as it did so.

"Naw, its fine..." she assured Conner, admiring how her step-daughter danced so freely, tossing her dark hair about, moving her voluptuous body with more energy and grace than Jocelyn would have expected. She was actually a very pretty girl, Jocelyn observed. Odd that she had never noticed before. Perhaps it was the light--the sun had barely set and the world seemed to have a magical glow about it. She sighed and stretched. It was quite warm. She undid a button of her red sleeveless blouse.

Conner sidled up to her. Gosh he was looking hot. He was a stalky, barrel-chested young man and his muscular frame was shown to full effect by his tight black T-shirt. He was no taller than Jocelyn herself, usually a turn off for her, but standing there above her as she lounged he looked like a pinnacle of manhood... She made a quick glance at his crotch, then blushingly turned back to her undulating stepdaughter. Damn her boobs were big.

"Wow--she's a good dancer," Jocelyn observed.

"Yeah, she really lets go when she does X," Conner observed.

"Huh?" said Jocelyn.

"You know--Ecstasy. It's in the lemonade." Conner explained.

Jocelyn stared at her glass.

"Mine too?" she asked.

"Oh yeah! She put a double hit in yours. We thought it would help you enjoy the fireworks. You don't mind, do you?"

Jocelyn was pretty sure that her stepdaughter putting illegal drugs in her drink was something she should mind but she really didn't seem to. Still, she was the grown up here. She should say something.

"Stephanie!" she shouted to the dancing girl Her stepdaughter looked over and came closer so that she could hear but she continued to dance.

"Did you put drugs in my drink?" she asked. She didn't sound very authoritative Jocelyn observed.

"Yeah, isn't it cool?" Stephanie asked.

It did feel pretty cool, but that was beside the point, wasn't it? Jocelyn was pretty sure there was a principle involved somewhere. Oh, there it was.

"Your not supposed to do drugs and I'm not either," she explained. "Your father would be mad."

"Gosh, Jocelyn, I'm sorry! I won't ever never do it again!" her step daughter declared and then giggled.

"OK then. Apology accepted," Jocelyn said.

She was glad that was settled. Now they could enjoy their evening.

"Y'wanna dance?" Stephanie asked.

"Sure, why not!" Jocelyn declared and Conner held out a hand to help her up out of the lawn chair. It was a good thing too--she felt really floaty and wasn't terribly sure which direction was up. Once on her feet, though, the the steady throb of the bass pressed into her and told her how to move. The nagging thought that something wasn't right was drowned out by the steady pulse of the music that seemed to match the steady pulse of blood through her ears. She smiled at her stepdaughter and matched her movements as they both turned towards Conner who was watching them with wide-eyed splendor as he joined the dance.