CHAPTER 1

"Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"

JC Chasez eyed the little girl in front of him. 'Not little,' he thought. He gauged her age to be around nine or ten but then he wasn't very good with ages of kids. He always pegged them younger than they were. There was something familiar about the impish tilt in her smile; the twinkle in her green eyes. He felt like he should know this girl.

"I don't..." He started, ready to politely decline. After all, he didn't need the temptation of delicious Trefoils and Samoas in his house. The girl gasped, cutting off his words.

"I know you!"

JC relaxed and smiled at the girl. He thought she was a little young to recognize him; his years of gracing the covers of teenybopper magazines had long since passed. "You do?" He wondered how many boxes she was gonna take him for. The longer he stayed, the more likely he was bound to buy something.

"Yes," she nodded excitedly. "You're in a bunch of photos at my Uncle Lance's house!"

"Uncle Lance?" JC's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the girl again. His lips parted in wonder when he realized who she was. "McKenzie."

McKenzie nodded. Her long blonde pony tail bounced with the movement. "I go by Kenzi now."

"Kenzi," JC corrected, smiling. "Wow, I haven't seen you since you were... I think four years old!" He was fairly certain the last time he had seen Lance's niece had been in Orlando in 2005 during a charity basketball game *NSYNC had put on for their charity, "Challenge for the Children". It had been the final time they had hosted the charity event.

"Not a very good honorary uncle," Kenzi said with a mischievous grin.

"Ouch," JC rubbed his chest playfully. 'There goes a case of Trefoils,' he thought. "I'm sorry. I've be lax on my uncle duties."

"You've missed a lot of birthdays and Christmases."

JC laughed, "You are just like your mother." He told her as he calculated how much nearly ten years of missed dates would cost in Girl Scout cookies.

"Thanks," Kenzi grinned proudly. "My mom is pretty cool. Other than the fact that I'm still in Girl Scouts at thirteen. I wanted to stop a couple years ago but she wouldn't let me." She looked around eyeballing the people walking around The Grove and to her own troop selling cookies. Satisfied, she looked back at JC. "Between you and me," she said with her voice lowered. "I think she won't let me because of her addiction to Thin Mints."

JC was unable to hold back his laughter. Knowing McKenzie's mother the way he did, it sounded about right. You didn't come between Rachel Bass and her chocolate. "So it's safe to say you're completely sold out of Thin Mints? Your mom already get her hands on them?"

Kenzi giggled, "No, we have some." She sent him a look, one eyebrow arched. "Is that what you want? Thin Mints?"

'Oh, you're good,' JC thought a grin teasing his lips. "I'm more partial to the Samoas." He watched as Kenzi curled her lip and leaned toward him.

"Just between you and me, I think those are disgusting."

JC laughed again unable to believe this little girl. She was something else. "Your secret is safe with me. I won't tell the head Scout that someone in her troop thinks one of her cookies is disgusting."

Kenzi giggled and took his hand, leading him toward the table set up with all the Girl Scout cookie deliciousness. He felt like a fish on a hook. While he waited for his cookies, he looked at Kenzi. He couldn't believe he hadn't recognized her from the get go. She was a Bass through and through; the blonde hair, the green-yellow eyes and the crooked smile that both Lance and his twin sister Rachel sported. She was like a miniature version of her mother. It was hard to believe that it had been nearly ten years since he'd last seen McKenzie.

McKenzie had taken an immediate liking to him. He didn't see her a lot when she was an infant because they pretty much lived on tour from the time she was born.  The Celebrity Tour ended and they announced a temporary hiatus. He and Justin had did the solo thing. Lance ended up in Russia. Once Lance returned from Russia, Rachel and McKenzie had moved in with him.  Even though she lived in Florida, he still rarely saw her with his own solo touring going on. 

Once Kenzi hit the toddler age she had attached herself to him whenever they saw each other. She'd been an adorable little toddler who had taken an immediately liking to him. The guys had joked she had her first crush. He hadn't minded, just let her play with the curls that adorned his head at the time and held her baby doll when she handed it to him. Honestly, he was smitten with her too.

There were a lot of pictures floating around from their charity event on the Internet and he came across them often.  The later ones had a lot of photos of him and Kenzi. Briahna had been there as well, but she always stuck close to Joey and Melissa. McKenzie had gone back and forth between him and Lance. She never shied away from the others, she just was never quick to seek them out. He smiled remembering how put out Justin had been at the fact.

"Here you go."

Kenzi's voice brought him back and he reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet. He handed over the bills and tried not to frown when he got very little change back. The smile on Kenzi's face was worth it. "Pleasure doing business with you, Ma'am."

"Thank you JC!" Kenzi grinned at him.

JC started to walk away, but turned back around as a thought came to him. "Where are you setting up shop next so I won't be the sole reason your troop sells the most cookies?"

Kenzi giggled and looked down as a blush crossed her face. "Don't worry; you aren't the sole reason... Uncle Lance bought way more than you."

JC narrowed his eyes as he looked at Kenzi's innocent face. Rachel flashed before him and he shook his head. "I'm on to you," he said as Kenzi giggled again. "You swindled me out of enough money today, Kid."

"Uncle Lance complained too but that didn't stop him and Uncle Michael from eating an entire box in one sitting." Kenzi nailed him with a look that had JC wanting to quickly get away. "You wouldn't want to out buy him would you?"

JC laughed again. "I don't think so."

"Didn't think so. You still bought more than Joey."

"You hit up Joey and I had to run in to you on the street?" JC feigned hurt.

"Briahna's my best friend," Kenzi shrugged. "He had to buy some; it's in the daughter's best friend code or something."

JC chuckled. "You are something else, Kenzi."

"That's what my mom tells me too sometimes. Though I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. Oh!" She gasped. "Don't move!" She quickly ducked beneath the table and reached for the backpack she had brought with her and took her phone from the front zipper compartment. "Can I take a picture with you?"

"Of course," JC smiled. He took McKenzie's phone from her put his arm around her. His heart warmed when she entwined her arms around his waist and hugged him. Holding the phone out, he snapped the photo of the two of them together. "What are you doing?" He asked watching as her thumbs quickly moved over her phone.

"Sending it to mom," she told him absently as she sent a text to her mother. 'Guess who I just saw!'

"Rachel's not here?" JC asked looking around. At the table set up were five girls and two adults. Neither of them were Rachel.

"No, Mom did this last weekend." Kenzi said as her phone chimed with a text from her mother.

'Brad Pitt?'

Kenzi rolled her eyes. 'Duh. No.'

'Bradley Cooper?'

'No. He's from that boy band you like.'

‘Joey McIntyre?!'

 Kenzi rolled her eyes and sent the photo JC just took of them to her mother.

'How much did you take him for?'

JC laughed at the reply. "Your mother knows you well."

"Who do you think taught me how to sell cookies?"

'Not as much as Uncle Lance.'

'Your Uncle Lance is a pushover.'

'I know.' Kenzi added a smiley face to the message and promptly sent another one. ‘Think he's ready for more?'

‘Lance and Michael are going to be handing Girl Scout cookies out for Christmas presents. They bought so many.'

"You have a Twitter?" JC asked surprised when he saw McKenzie pull up the app. "Aren't you a little young to be on there?"

"You sound like Mom," Kenzi said with an eye roll. "She monitors my account and who I follow and what I say. You don't care if I post this do you?" She asked as she attached the photo of them to a tweet.

"No, go right ahead." JC said and really, he didn't mind.

"Oh, I know," she deleted the picture and pulled up her Facebook account, going into her photos.

"Is there any social media you aren't on?" JC asked.

"No. But this one is private. Only my family and close friends are on here," Kenzi explained. "And everything is private; no one can see any posts or photos unless they are my friend. I really only have this so Gramma and Grandpa can stay updated. And Aunt Stacy since they live far away. Mom made it for me when we moved out here a couple years ago. Gramma made one too when I left." She frowned and relaxed her arms to her side, staring off into the distance. "I like being out here in California. I love being able to see Uncle Lance and Uncle Michael. We never really got to see them being in Mississippi," she sighed.

"But you miss Mississippi?" JC said knowingly.

"Yeah." Kenzi looked up at him. "There's no winning. We stay here...I miss Gramma and Grandpa; Aunt Stacy and Uncle Ford...Leighton. But if we move back... then I'll miss Uncle Lance and Uncle Michael. It sucks."

"Yes it does." JC agreed. "My parents and siblings all live in Florida. I have a lot of friends who live there too from when I used to. I don't get to see anyone as much as I want to."

"Yeah but don't you have a lot of money so you can see them whenever you want?"

JC smiled patiently. "That doesn't mean my schedule is free enough for me to just take off to Florida. A lot of things have to be cleared for me to go away for a week or two."

"I hope Mom will let us go home over spring break. If not, I bet I could talk Gramma into coming out here."

"I bet you could," JC chuckled having no doubts that McKenzie could talk her mom or her grandmother into what she wanted.

"I hope so," Kenzi said and brought her phone back up and went into one of the albums to grab the picture she wanted. Finding the one she wanted, she grinned and showed it to JC. "Remember this?"

JC took the phone from Kenzi so he could better see the screen. "Wow..." he stared at the phone. The photo was from the final Challenge for the Children. He was sitting on the court floor, already in his red Knights basketball uniform. His knees were drawn up. Between his legs was a four year old McKenzie, dressed a matching red and white Knights cheerleading outfit; her blonde hair in pigtails. She had both arms wrapped around his neck in a squeezing hug with her cheek squished against his. Both of them were grinning at the camera.

He had never seen the picture before.

"I have a bunch of other ones on here from there. Mom has a whole bunch," she laughed softly. "She took a lot of pictures. Still takes a lot of pictures."

"Yes. She was always wielding the camera," JC nodded still looking at the photo of him and Kenzi. "She probably has a whole bunch of us that I have never seen."

"Uncle Lance told me that I never wanted anything to do with anyone but you and him. Which is weird because I didn't really know you. Not like I knew Uncle Lance."

"You used to hang all over me when you saw me," JC smiled at the memory.  "You always wanted me to carry you. You constantly handed me your toys. You'd bring me books to read. You loved playing with my hair when it was longer. You used to pet it. The guys had a good laugh. I think you just wanted my necklace."

"Your necklace?" Kenzi asked and looked down at the photo. Lying on the white undershirt beneath JC's jersey was a silver medallion on a black cord.

"Every time I'd pick you up or you'd hug me you'd grab it and hold it in your hand rub your thumb over it." He smiled softly at a memory that surfaced. "A few times you'd fall asleep doing that."

"Maybe that's why I liked you more," Kenzi said glancing at him out of the corner of her eye with a sly smile. "You wore a necklace and they didn't."

"Maybe," JC chuckled. "Whatever the reason I was able to bust the guys' chops because you didn't like them."

"You're welcome," Kenzi grinned at him.