As soon as I saw her standing at the gate I waved and called, "Grace! Come on in!"

Like usual she was dressed up in a fashionable blouse and skirt combo and she had a small purse hanging from her shoulder by a thin strap. Her blonde hair had been recently styled in waves and ringlets, and her make-up was subtle but attractive.

She seemed a little awkward again, like she felt out of place here or something. I was pretty sure that was thanks to her parents, they probably weren't happy about her coming to another of our parties. Especially after her last visit, when she stayed over and missed church the next morning.

Thanks to my demonic intuition thing I knew she really wanted to break free of her parents and have her own life and stuff, and she wanted to be out and proud about liking girls the way me and my girlfriends were. But at the same time she felt trapped, like she was financially dependant on her folks and they wouldn't allow her to be anything other than what they wanted. And unfortunately she wasn't brave or confident enough to stand up for herself or leave them and try to make it on her own.

"Hi Grace," Amber smiled and waved as well, so did Matt.

"Hi Mara, hello Amber," she replied as she walked into the backyard. "I'm not too early am I?"

I shook my head, "Not at all! We were just about to get things started actually, so pull up a plastic chair and I'll get you a drink!"

It was Saturday of the August long weekend, and the DLP were throwing our second big BBQ bash. It wasn't quite a replay of the first one, but I figured it'd be just as good.

Sam and Troy couldn't make it, they had other plans this weekend. Matt came early though and helped us set stuff up, and Susan's friends from uni were on their way too. And there was a good chance Amber's little sister and her girlfriend would be dropping by as well, though I knew Tracey would probably behave herself.

The other difference was there weren't any fireworks this time, but we got one of those outdoor fireplace things so we were going to have a nice little fire to sit around after it got dark.

"Hi Grace!" Melissa said as she emerged from the house with a couple big bowls of chips. She set them down on two of the little plastic tables then added, "We need to get together for another photography day in the next week or two, right?"

Our uptight friend smiled awkwardly, "I'd enjoy that! I've been thinking about locations, how would you like to try shooting down at the bluffs? Or if you want to do more people or crowd shots, maybe we could head down to the Ex when it starts?"

The Ex, aka CNE, aka Canadian National Exhibition, was a big deal they did downtown at the end of August every year. It was like a fair or whatever, and there were rides and stuff.

"Yes!" Melissa grinned. "Both sound good. Can we do both? I'm up for both!"

That put a smile on my face too, "I've never been to the Ex, but I'd love to go! And I've never been to the bluffs, so I vote both as well."

Susan finally emerged from the house as I was handing Grace a glass of wine. The curvaceous redhead turned up the music on the outdoor speakers, then smiled "Oh hi Grace, glad you could make it! Nobody's called dibs on the guest room yet, so you're welcome to it if you're going to stay the night?"

Grace thanked me for the wine then she greeted Sue, but I noticed she still couldn't quite bring herself to look my redheaded girlfriend in the eyes.

She had a sip of her wine then replied with a little shrug, "My parents want me home early tonight so I don't miss church tomorrow, but um... I aim to misbehave?"

It seemed like an odd phrase for her to say, but it still put a smile on my face. I was happy she was ready to start doing what she wanted instead of sticking to what her folks wanted. What really surprised me though was how Sue reacted.

She let out a happy laugh and announced, "Oh my gods we have to keep her!"

"Ok?" I smiled, "I'm definitely not going to argue, but what just happened?"

The curvy redhead leaned over and gave Grace a surprise hug as she told me, "That was the big line, the big quote from one of my favourite movies!"

Sue looked at the awkward blonde again and added, "Two weeks ago you didn't even know that show existed, now you're quoting lines at me! Are you trying to seduce me Grace? Because it's working!"

By that point Grace was blushing so bright I almost worried her cheeks might burst into flames. Part of it was because my girlfriends all had their succubus beauty thing going strong, and I knew it had a big effect on Grace last time she hung out with us.

The flustered girl took a deeper gulp of her wine then mumbled, "I'm not sure I want to be 'kept'..."

Susan grinned and gave Grace a couple gentle pats on the head, "Don't worry cutie, we'll take very good care of you."

I could barely keep a straight face as I turned away to grab myself a vodka cooler. I didn't even need my demonic intuition to know what was going on there. Grace was fantasizing about being collared or something again, and Susan was playing along. I'd almost feel sorry for her, but between my girlfriends' succubus sex sense and my intuition we all knew how much she enjoyed the teasing.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, Sue was distracted before she could really get started. Her friends Erin and Logan came through the gate, and that led to another round of greetings and stuff. Susan got them drinks, then they all sat down with Melissa and started talking with each other.

Amber was still having a long conversation with Matt, so I parked myself in a chair beside Grace to make sure she was ok after her close encounter of the Susan kind.

"How are you doing Grace?" I asked as I tried not to smile too much. "I hope Sue didn't break you or anything?"

She was still blushing as she quickly drained the last of her wine, and my demonic intuition thing told me she might actually enjoy being 'broken' by Susan.

"I'm ok," she finally replied. "Just um, yeah. I'm fine."

"Good," I grinned. "Were you serious, about maybe staying the night?"

Grace hesitated, "I was serious about my folks wanting me home early. But um, yeah. I think I want to stay and enjoy myself. Even if it does get me into trouble later."

"Well you're definitely welcome to spend the night," I told her. "I just wish there was something I could do to help, like so you didn't have your parents always stressing you out."

There was one thing I still had in mind, despite Lily saying it wasn't a good idea. And knowing that Grace used to work for Lily in a past life made it seem like maybe she wouldn't mind doing that sort of thing again this time around.

Especially since it felt like she was getting more comfortable with me and my girlfriends. Like I was positive her talking to Melissa about another photo-day and talking sci-fi stuff to Susan was deliberate. Maybe the photography stuff could be innocent since we were all in the same classes or whatever, but quoting some movie to Sue definitely felt like Grace had done some homework.

I actually wondered if she'd done anything to get closer to Amber as well. On the other hand, that'd probably involve sex toys, and I wasn't sure if Grace was at the point where she'd visit Amber's store. Not yet anyways.

It left me feeling like the fashionable blonde was making an effort to open up. And it made me want to help her even more. Except with her dad being a priest and all, Lily didn't think it was safe letting Grace know about all the demon and succubus stuff we had going on.

I might have expected my demon mom to speak up about it right then, or at least remind me not to discuss it with Grace, but she'd been quiet again the last couple days like she had something else on her mind. I worried sometimes what sorts of stuff she was stressing about, but whenever I asked she said it was nothing or that it didn't involve me.

So I stayed out of Lily's business and tried not to fuss too much over her when she was like that. And as much as I wanted to see Grace get some demonic help to get out from under her parents' control, I kept quiet about it and just tried to be a good friend and tried to support her in other ways.

"Thanks Mara," she responded. "I appreciate it."

At that point Willow and Jenna arrived so all the conversations got paused again for another round of greetings and stuff. By the time they'd said hello to everyone and got drinks things had shuffled around again.

Willow, Jenna, Erin, and Susan were all sitting together talking, while Logan and Matt helped Melissa get the BBQ started. Amber moved to sit with Grace and keep her company, while I ended up heading into the kitchen to start getting the food out of the fridge and ready for the grill.

We all decided to try some different food for this party. We had a bunch of chicken burgers which looked good, but the thing I'd actually spent some time preparing yesterday was a big pile of shrimp skewers and veggie skewers.

I thought they'd be kind of fun party-food, like each one was small and had its own built-in handle so you could grab it and enjoy it without worrying about cutlery and stuff. I also made up a home-made sauce for basting them when they were on the grill.

By the time I had all that ready Melissa and the guys had the grill heating up, and it looked like either she or Matt would be doing the cooking this time. Logan had already gone back to sit with Erin and the others, to join in whatever that big conversation was about.

I didn't bother listening in, but I kind of had a feeling they might have been talking about the Tracey incident at the Canada Day party. Erin and Logan and Susan had been talking quite a bit, while Willow and Jenna mostly just listened for a while.

Melissa helped me carry out the last of the food, we had buns and condiments and stuff for the chicken burgers. Plus I made some coleslaw, and a sweet-potato salad. And there were paper plates and napkins and plastic cutlery and glasses and all that.

Once we had everything set up on the big table outside, Melissa joined Matt at the BBQ while I sat down with Grace and Amber. The two of them were talking about college from the sound of it.

"...taking a couple photography classes," Amber said. "Not a whole program, just a couple classes that appealed to me. I was into photography back in high school, but the last two years I've been doing drawing and creative writing at college."

Grace smiled, "Then you should totally come with us! Mara and Melissa and I were talking about a photo-day down at the Ex, and maybe visiting the bluffs at some point too."

"Maybe," Amber nodded. "I should probably dig out my camera gear anyways, it's been a couple years since I used it."

I commented, "I don't think I've even seen it. Did it come here when you moved?"

The succubus cutie nodded "I think it's in one of the boxes that went straight into the crawlspace. Maybe tomorrow or Monday I'll dig it out and dust it off."

The three of us continued talking about college and photography and stuff, while Melissa and Matt got the food cooking.

As expected, Tracey and Annie showed up and made themselves at home. They both grabbed vodka coolers and went around saying hello to everyone. I noticed Annie seemed a little uneasy around all of us, or around me anyways, but Amber's little sister acted completely at ease. She wasn't unruly though, and she was polite when she greeted Amber and Grace and me.

I found myself smiling as I looked around at everyone. We had music playing, yummy food cooking on the BBQ, plenty of cold drinks, and it was a hot bright mid-summer day. Including me and the rest of the DLP we had a dozen people chilling and mingling and enjoying themselves, and it felt like it was shaping up to be a nice little party.

When the first of the food was ready people started helping themselves, I was pretty sure even Amber tried one of the skewers. Matt and Melissa did a good job on the BBQ, and everyone seemed to enjoy their meals.

Eventually when it started to get dark the BBQ was shut down and left-overs got stuffed back into the fridge, while the bowls of chips and stuff were topped up again. Susan got a fire going in the outdoor fireplace thing, and we all ended up sitting in a big circle around that as we continued talking and drinking and stuff.

All in all, it felt like our second big BBQ bash was going to be perfect.

PurpleCatGirl

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