Chapter One

"Brook stay here." Ephram calls quickly to his daughter who is playing on the slide.

"Okay Daddy." 5-year-old Brooklyn Brown calls back barely paying attention to her father who is quickly leaving the glass inclosed room.

"Amy," Ephram comes to a stop standing in front of a woman he hadn't seen in years.

Amy grins brightly at Ephram, "hi."

"What are you doing in Phoenix?" Ephram asks right away.

Amy makes a face, "a psychiatry conference, nothing so thrilling, what are you doing here?"

"Brook and I moved here abut a month ago." Ephram responds.

"You and Brook, where's Lizzie?" Amy asks not realizing how blunt it sounds until it is out of her mouth.

"Lizzie passed away about 6 months ago." Ephram responds shortly.

"Ephram I'm so..." Amy stops, immediately recognizing the look on Ephram's face that says, I don't want to talk about it. "So Phoenix? Why here? Why not Everwood?"

"They offered me a job transfer here, so I took it. I did think about Everwood but then this came up, so here we are. How long are you in town for?"

"A week and a half." Amy responds, "not really much fun but something I pretty much have to be at."

"Daddy." Brooklyn had obviously tired of her game and she appears beside Ephram, "what's going on?"

"Brook this is my friend Amy, Amy this is my daughter Brooklyn."

Amy smiles at Ephram's daughter, who doesn't taken after him in an respect. She has bright blue eyes and shoulder length blonde hair that has a slight curl to it. "Hello Brooklyn."

"Hello." Brooklyn responds simply staring at the strange woman who has captured his attention. "Daddy can I have ice cream?"

Ephram turns his attention back to his daughter, "all right," Ephram hands his daughter two dollar bills.

Ephram and Amy sit down and catch up for about 15 minutes until Brooklyn interrupts them, "Daddy I'm tired and I have to go to lessons in the morning."

"Right, you have horseback riding, all right." Ephram turns to Amy, "I have to get her home but why don't you come over for dinner or something?"

"That'd be great." Amy responds, "when?"

"Is tomorrow good for you?" Ephram asks.

"Yeah it's great."

"Daddy," Brooklyn interrupts again.

"What is it Brook?" Ephram asks.

"I have dance tomorrow night." Brooklyn responds.

Amy stares at the young girl amazed at how she was better at keeping track of her events than Ephram was. Ephram sighs, "that's right, do we have anything going on the day after tomorrow Brook?"

Brooklyn shakes her head, "nope, that's good for us. You can come to dinner at 6 okay?"

Amy smiles at the forward young girl, "all right, thank you very much for inviting me."

Two days later Amy was standing in her hotel room wrapped in one of the robes they had provided and surveying her clothing options, something she had been doing for going on 30 minutes now. She didn't know why she was so concerned about her clothes, she kept telling herself that it was only Ephram, but that only seemed to make her more nervous. The rains that had started when she had arrived had given way to 100 degree heat and after being stuck in a hot suit all day she was looking for something much cooler to wear. Finally Amy decides on a pink light material camisole and a pair of long jean capris, realizing that she only has a short time to get ready Amy quickly pulls the clothes on and brushes her shoulder length dark blonde hair.

Amy arrives at Ephram's house at exactly six with the directions Ephram had emailed to her. Reaching the door Amy can hear classical music drifting through an open window and she smiles, Ephram still played the piano, not wanting to make the music stop but not wanting to look stupid standing on their front porch Amy eventually rings the doorbell.

Ephram is the one to open the door and the music still hasn't stopped even when Brooklyn appears next to her father wearing a black leotard, dark pink shorts and pink tights Amy realizes that Brooklyn must have been dancing.

"You found the house." Ephram comments.

Amy nods, "you gave good directions."

Ephram nods, "good, listen I'm almost done with dinner, Brook why don't you give Amy a tour of the house?"

Brooklyn nods, "all right." Grabbing Amy's hand she leads her throughout the house taking Amy first into the living room, a basic living room but Amy is shocked to see that there is no piano, and upon further investigation of the downstairs Amy finds that there isn't a piano in the house.

"Wanna see my rooms?" Brook asks.

Amy nods, "sure, if you want to show it to me."

"I have two." Brook states as she leads Amy up the stairs, "one is for sleeping one is for practicing. Cause I have to practice for dance and gymnastics."

Brooklyn leads Amy into the room where the music had been coming from and shows Amy the room that had been decorated in dance and gymnastics with everything you could imagine needing to practice for the various things. A mat on the floor took up half the room and the other half was a wood floor, "this is my practice room."

"It has everything you'd need huh?" Amy asks.

Brooklyn grins up at Amy, "Aunt Delia, Grandma Nina, and Grandpa Andy say I'm spoiled."

Amy smiles back at the girl, "I was spoiled when I was your age too."

"You were?" Brooklyn asks.

Amy nods, "very, so where's your bedroom?"

"In here." Brooklyn grabs Amy's hand again and leads her through the door in the room. Amy stares at the room that had to have been done by an interior decorator. The entire room is done in a dark pink/light red floral pattern and everything matches and is in perfect. "Aunt Tara decorated my room."

"Is that your mom's sister?" Brooklyn nods. "She and Aunt Melody and Aunt Kyra helped us move to Arizona, with their husbands and my friends."

"I thought your mom just had one sister?" Amy asks drawing on the limited knowledge she had of Elizabeth.

Brooklyn nods, "come here." Dragging Amy over to one dresser she points at a huge picture frame collage with several pictures of Brooklyn and three other girls her age and then their mothers make appearances. Brooklyn points to the picture in the center she is on the far right and next to her is a girl with brown hair, next to her is an Asian girl with a grin that shows her front two teeth missing, and the final girl is an African American girl with an grin that is as toothless as the girl next to her. "Those are my best friends, that's me and my cousin Kyleigh, and then Carol and Ava."

"And that's your mom right?" Amy asks pointing to the one she remembers as Lizzie, although she does recognize all four women from the wedding. Elizabeth was beautiful and this picture was no different, she looks like a model with her short blonde hair perfect and Brooklyn's bright blue eyes.

"Yup! Wasn't beautiful?" Brooklyn asks.

Amy nods, "she really was."