  The association of long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with star forming regions and
the idea of massive stars as progenitors of GRBs are widely accepted. Because
of their short lifetimes, it is very likely that massive stars are still
embedded in dense molecular clouds when they give birth to GRBs. Stellar winds
from GRB progenitors can create low-density bubbles with sizes and densities
strongly depending on the initial ambient density. A boundary between the
bubble and the dense molecular cloud must exist with the density at the
boundary increasing from that of the bubble to that of the outer cloud. We have
calculated the lightcurves of the afterglows in such environments with three
regions: the stellar wind region, the boundary, and the molecular cloud. We
show that the interaction between the cylindrical jet and the density boundary
can result in a re-brightening of the afterglow occurring as early as ~1 day
after the GRB. We compare our models with the optical afterglows of GRB970508,
GRB000301C, and GRB030226. We find that the values of our model parameters,
including the radius of the wind bubble, the densities in the bubble and in the
outer molecular cloud are within typical ranges.
