Note: These characters (with the exception of the BWG's offspring) are not mine. They belong to Random House.

Sometimes, there are places which hold significant meaning in our lives.

For sixteen year old Laura Belden, this place was a tree house in the backyard which had originally belonged to her twin uncles. As little girls, Laura and her own twin sister Lydia had spent countless hours transforming every boyish feature into the ultimate girl getaway. It had been a magical place. A place where fashion dolls came to life, unicorns danced on rainbows, glitter could make anything beautiful, and whispered dreams were kept secret in the diaries of sisters' hearts. It was the place where Laura had first learned to blow a bubble with chewing gum, where she had confessed her first crush, and where she'd held her first slumber party.

Unfortunately, it was also the last place where she felt truly close to her sister.

Time and personality differences had been causing the twins to drift farther and farther apart; leaving Laura feeling nostalgic about their childhood days in the old wooden tree house.

She ran a slender finger over the railing of the outer decking as she strolled casually on its rickety planking. Her heart felt burdened by more than just her feelings of detachment from her twin.

I hope it's still in here, the dark haired girl thought to herself as she climbed inside.

The little pink object she was searching for was quickly located, but before she could sit down to examine it, a noise from below startled her.

"Lydia?" Laura called out.

She slipped her head out of the small doorway, expecting to see her sister, only to find her Uncle Bobby staring up at her with a strange look of surprise.

"Oh! Laura! What are you doing up there?" Bob Belden asked quickly. Laura thought his voice sounded a little husky, and she wondered if he missed her uncles whenever he passed by the old play fort. Larry and Terry Lynch had been his childhood pals, and the three of them had built the tree house together.

"I…I came up here to get something. Were you trying to find Dad?" Laura guessed.

"Well…yes, actually. But…he wasn't out in the potting shed. Do you happen to know where he is?"

The teen remembered her father, Martin Belden, had an appointment with some scientists from a local university, so she told her uncle about it.

"But, I think he told Mom he would be back in time for dinner," she added helpfully. "Maybe you'll catch him if you stick around."

It wasn't uncommon, after all, for Bobby to have dinner with his brother's family.

"That's okay. I really should be getting back to the preserve. But, thank you, anyway. I have a lot of work to do. I just wanted to drop off some new data about our spinach mite research, and…say,…what's that you're holding?"

Laura felt the heat creeping up her neck, and she tried to play off the embarrassing blush with a characteristic suck of her teeth and a dramatic roll of her violet eyes.

"This? Oh…um…I just happened to see it lying around up here. It's my…uh…Precious Moments Bible. Aunt Cara gave it to me when I was really little." The pretty teen gave the small pink covered book a casual flop as her hand waved the air.

But Bobby didn't buy it.

"And, that's not what you went up there to find?" The slow grin spreading across his handsome, tanned face caused Laura to give an exasperated huff and roll her eyes once more.

"Whatever, Uncle Bobby! I outgrew this baby version a long time ago. I have a really cool teen study Bible, now." She didn't want to look childish in front of an adult, and she knew her father's brother had always been a proud atheist, but those weren't the only reasons Laura didn't want to go into detail about her sudden need for retrieving the old children's edition of the Bible.

"So…that wouldn't be some sort of…embarrassing note hanging out of it either, I suppose," Bobby teased her again.

Laura wanted to throw something at him.

"Ooh! You…you," she started.

"Careful," Bobby warned with a laugh, "You're holding a holy book. Don't say something you'll regret later."

The young girl couldn't help but laugh at his quick wit. To prove her uncle wrong, she pulled out the multicolored piece of paper that was protruding from the book, carefully folding and bending some of its edges as she did so, and then held its cube-like shape up for the man below her to view.

"See! It's not a note, Nosey!" She giggled. "It's a witness cube."

Suddenly, Bobby's smile disappeared.

"Where…where did you…get that? Did Cara give that to you, too?"

The strange sort of way the man was choking on his words made Laura feel uncomfortable.

"Well…no. Not exactly. She taught Lydia and me how to make them. Lydia's was bigger, of course. But, mine had brighter colors, and…"

She stopped when she realized that the man below her wasn't listening. He was staring into space with a sad, far off look.

"Um…Uncle Bobby? Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, of course, Sweetie. Everything's fine. I just…" He looked as if he were about to brush her off and go back toward the house, but then he surprised her by reaching up a hand and beckoning for her to come down to him. "You know what? No. I'm not okay. It seems that we both need someone to talk to right now, so…why don't you come down from there and…let's sit on the back patio for a minute. Does that sound good to you?"

Laura suddenly didn't know what to say.

And that was completely unlike her.

She could imagine her father laughing at her and saying, "My Motormouth has been struck speechless? Oh No! It's the end of the world!"

"Well…uh…sure. That sounds…good to me… I guess," Laura finally managed to stammer at Bobby after a moment of stunned silence.

She climbed down the old strips of wood serving as a ladder on the side of the tree and wondered how in the world her father's brother could have guessed that something was troubling her. After making it to the bottom step, she hopped down to stand awkwardly beside the blonde headed man.

"Okay. Let's go sit down, then" she said, trying to sound casual as she led the way to the patio. Laura's heart began to beat faster with the thought of sharing out loud what was bothering her.

But, before she could say anything, her uncle surprised her by starting the conversation the very minute they were seated.

"Um, Laura,…did you know … your Aunt Cara was the first girl I ever kissed?"

Again, Laura was struck mute.

"It happened right up there in that tree house, actually. I was about eleven years old at the time."

"No way!" Laura found her voice again.

"Uh, huh. And, it was the same day we first saw one of those witness cubes, too." Bobby's voice suddenly took on a regretful tone. "She was helping me find a letter my friend Dan had left for me, and the cube was in it, and…well…the kiss just sort of happened. Unfortunately…after that, I was so wrapped up in how it made me feel that… I didn't understand what was happening to her because of the cube. Looking back now, I guess I got jealous of her new faith. It was like she chose God over me, and I was too selfish to be happy for her. Honestly…I stormed off like an idiot, and it was years before I ever really sat down and talked to Cara about anything. Pretty stupid, huh?"

Laura blinked a few times in astonishment before answering him.

"O…M…G! You are totally lying to me!"

"No, Laura, I'm not," Bobby said softly.

"But…but what about Aunt Isabella? Does she know about any of this?"

The man beside her chuckled and patted her shoulder kindly.

"Oh, of course she knows. And, she knows it was all just an innocent first kiss. I don't think I ever really thought of Cara as a potential girlfriend, truthfully. It was just a silly crush. We're tremendous friends, now. But…with all the other things going on in my life at that time…I guess…I guess I took everything the wrong way back then. "

"And, is that why…you…um…never wanted anything to do with God?" Laura asked shyly.

Her uncle shifted uncomfortably in his deck chair, staring thoughtfully across the lawn at the tree house.

"One of many reasons…I guess." He turned back to her and gave her a fatherly smile. "But, don't you worry about that. A lot has changed since those days. I've changed. And…thankfully…God is still working on me. I've even been taking my family to church, recently. I guess that's…uh…that's part of what I wanted to talk to your dad about."

The implications of his words weren't lost on the teen, and Laura immediately felt her heavy heart filling with a lighter warmth that couldn't be explained. She wanted to blurt out the million thoughts swarming in her brain, yet she fought off the urge so that the opportunity to witness to him wouldn't be lost.

Unfortunately, the obnoxious sound of a Lady GaGa ringtone suddenly interrupted her plan.

"I am SO sorry, Uncle Bobby. Let me…um…turn that off," Laura snatched her cell phone out of her pocket, checked the caller I.D., and then quickly hit the "off" button. "It's Brandon. I'll just…call him back, later." She wanted to crawl under her chair and hide in embarrassment. This was her chance to prove to her family that she wasn't the airheaded socialite everyone thought she was, and she certainly didn't want to blow it, now.

"Brandon, huh?" Bobby said with raised eyebrows. "Isn't that the same guy Matt punched in the face at school? Please tell me you're not going out with him just because he drives that really nice sports car."

So much for changing my image, Laura thought.

"Look, it's not what you think," Laura said quickly. "I mean, yeah, he's the same guy Matt had a fight with, but…but, he's not as bad as everyone thinks he is. And, no, I'm not going out with him because of his car. Brandon is actually very sweet. He's had it really rough, too, you know. People would see that if they ever just took the time to get to know him. His dad ran out on them when he was a baby, and the only reason he's at Ten Acres is because his grandmother helps his mom pay the tuition. Of course, that car he drives looks new, but it's really a cast off his rich boss at the Mattress Outlet gave him to fix up. He's had to work hard for everything he gets. And…see…Daniel doesn't always get why Brandon's such a jerk around him all the time, but I do. He's obviously jealous of Daniel. And, I guess I can see why. It's like Brandon never even had one good dad, and…now... Daniel's got two."

She suddenly stopped, realizing that her uncle was staring at her with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"Well…it's true," she mumbled in finishing. She wished he hadn't said all of that.

Motormouth strikes again, she lamented to herself.

"Wow," Bobby said after a brief silence. "Sounds like Brandon's lucky to have you on his side."

"And, whether anyone else agrees or not, I feel lucky to have him on mine," Laura stated firmly.

"Hey, I get it. I do. Just don't…fell like you have to…rush into anything," Bobby said softly. "You're still very young, and Brandon's probably going to be going away to school next year. So…don't fall too hard for him, okay?"

"I won't," she encouraged him with a smile.

"Besides, you might…discover someone better for you later in life; kind of the way I did when I met Isabella."

His words brought another fit of rolling eyes from his niece.

"Or, I could wind up weird and all alone like your cousin Knut. You know, Fiona once told me his girlfriend Gloria left him standing at the altar years ago, and he's never even dated one girl since! All that fame as a writer, and he's got no one to love. How tragic!" She couldn't help but let her eyes grow wide with the thrill of the gossip she was sharing.

"Come on, Laura, that's not true," Bobby broke into a laugh again. "Knut's gone out with a lot of other women. In fact, he's seeing one lady right now who has two grown children. They all spent Christmas together at his ski chalet in Denver. You shouldn't believe the junk people write about him in magazines."

Once again, Laura felt naive and childish. All she could do in response was let out a wilted, "Oh."

But, Bobby didn't seem to notice her embarrassment. He gave her shoulder another gentle pat.

"Is…uh…your concern about winding up 'weird and all alone' what made you go out to the tree house for your Bible?" He guessed. "Or…does it have anything to do with the stuff you just told me about Brandon?"

"What? Oh, no. It's not about any of that. It's…um…see…I wanted to find the Bible so I could…"

Wow. How do I say this? Especially now that I know he might be interested in God.

Laura closed her eyes for a moment to pray for the right words that would explain her dilemma without scaring Uncle Bobby away from anything spiritual.

"I wanted to find the Bible so I could give the cube to Ashley," she finally said, biting her lip nervously. "I wasn't sure if she was saved or not."

Bobby seemed deeply moved by her words.

"That's very sweet of you," he whispered.

"What? No lecture about pushy Christians trying to butt into everyone's life?" she teased.

"Not today. I'm trying to cut back."

Laura recognized the phrase as one her father often used when he was trying to keep things light, so she followed suit by sticking her tongue out at Bobby like she used to do when she was younger. If nothing else, she hoped it would keep him from being so serious he would be offended by her religious zeal.

"That's good. I'm not in the mood for one of your lectures, anyhow," she smirked. "I got more than my share of the one you gave when you subbed for old Mr. Meinet's science class last week."

"I just wonder what's got you so interested in Ashley's spiritual welfare all of a sudden," Bobby's voice shifted into a quietly serious tone. "Has something happened?"

"You mean…you don't know?" The idea made Laura uneasy. She thought everyone in her family knew. Everyone, that is, except for Daniel.

Bobby's frightened nod answered her question.

"Ashley's in the hospital. And…she's not doing so well. She went in with pneumonia just after Daniel and Poppa flew out of town." Despite all her efforts, the young girl couldn't mask the concern in her voice.

"Oh no. That's not good," Bobby breathed. "Does Daniel know about this?"

His niece shook her raven pony tail sadly.

"No, and she doesn't want anyone to tell him, either. She's afraid he'll try to leave Paris and come home from his trip early."

For a moment, the two of them sat in tense silence, and then Bobby sprang up with a determined air.

"Well, then, I think we'd better get going."

"Get going? Where?" Laura was confused.

"To the hospital, of course. You said you wanted to give the cube to Ashley, and…I…" he paused to swallow back his emotions, "I'm ready to see how that thing works."

"But…but, you said you needed to get back to the preserve, and…"

"Forget what I said," Bobby interrupted her with nervous energy. "Isabella and Angelica won't mind if I'm a little late getting home. I think it's important that we do this. It's taken me over twenty years to understand what Dan wanted so desperately for me to see, and…well…we don't know if Ashley has that kind of time."

Realizing how painfully familiar all of this must be for her uncle, Laura reached out to take his hand and gave it a sympathetic squeeze when she rose from her seat.

"Thanks, Uncle Bobby," she said.

"You're welcome, Sweetie. Now, come on. We need to tell your mom where we're going." He was patting down the pockets of his explorer vest, searching for his keys, when he suddenly stopped to pull a tiny object from one of them. It was an old, blue baby sock.

"What's that for?" Laura questioned. She could see the article of clothing was quite faded, and it looked as if it had been riding in Bobby's breast pocket for a considerable time, now.

Bobby's face was suddenly overtaken by a glowing blush and a wide grin.

"Luck," he said with a laugh. "I'm hoping the new baby will be a boy. Call it superstition if you want, but…it's really more…about tradition."

"Why?" Laura asked as she opened the back door to the old Lynch Estate. "Was that sock yours when you were a baby?"

The smile on the man's face deepened and his eyes glistened as he held the door open for her to pass through in front of him.

"Believe it or not, it's even older than I am. Tell you what. Wait until we're in the car, and then… I'll tell you all about it…"