Page 31 of The Cowboy's Miracle Baby

“You said you did some tutoring. Any of those students you remember?”

“No. I went through those, too. Maybe she just randomly chose me because I was directing the pageant?”

Liam leaned in. “And she thought,Oh there’s a kind, overcommitted, overachiever who can’t say no. Surely she’ll take the baby,” he teased. “She kind of nailed you there, li’l sis.”

Cami burned a look at him, but Shay said, “He isn’t wrong.”

“Stop you two,” Sarah scolded, shaking her head.

Izzy, who was standing nearby, overheard their conversation. “What if the birth mother goes by a different last name than a younger sibling, who actually knew you? What if Lolly’s mom is a stepsibling or she’s even married?”

“What if—” Luke said as he passed by with a glass blown angel in his hands “She was in the system?”

“What system?” Cooper asked, joining in the conversation.

“The foster care system,” Luke answered. “Kids don’t take on their foster parents’ names. They keep their own. Often, it’s their only real possession, unless they’re adopted.”

Cami blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that. If she was a foster child…”

“Did you have any foster kids in your classes?” Gus asked as Shay held her arms out for the baby.

He handed her over.

“I don’t think so. I feel like I’d remember that.”

“Just from my work in the Dallas courts, I know that kids aging out of the foster care system tend to have a high percentage of unplanned pregnancies. And only a small percent ever make it to college.”

“Makes sense,” Shay said quietly.

Gus glanced at her son, Ryan, who was distracted by his earbuds as he decorated the tree. Ryan had been unplanned, according to Liam, but very wanted nevertheless by Shay. And now that Cooper and Shay were together, it would surprise no one if he actually adopted Ryan.

Sarah paused hanging the popcorn string. “Cami, didn’t you have one of the Simon girls in your class? A couple of years ago? She was having some trouble as I recall.”

“Yes, Adriana Simon. Of course, she was one of my students a few years ago. She was a darling girl. I tutored her in reading. She had a lot of issues in the group setting. Stomach aches. Anxiety. Why do you ask about her?”

“I remember you spent a lot of extra time with her. After school hours, helping her with reading. She adored you. I remember that gift she gave you at the end of the year. That beautiful origami flower she made for you.”

Cami smiled. “I still have that flower.”

“Since the closest child services department is up in Billings, there aren’t too many foster families here in Marietta. But the Simons foster,” Sarah said. “Adriana is their natural daughter along with several others, but I have heard they’ve also had quite a few foster children in their home over the years. What if this girl Tara was one of them?”

Gus met Cami’s look. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Could Tara have been one of the Simons’s foster children? Tara might have known about Cami through Adriana.

“We’re probably grasping at straws here,” Shay said, rocking the baby as Cooper ran a hand over the baby’s head as she bobbled in Shay’s arms.

“But that was a few years ago,” Cami said. “Adriana must be in middle school by now, with Ryan. Ryan?Ryan?”

He pulled his earbuds out. “What?”

“Do you know Adriana Simons?”

“I did. They moved away,” he said, hanging a bulb on a high branch. “Last year, I think. I heard her father got a job up in Missoula. At the university.”

“You don’t happen to know if she had an older foster sister named Tara?”

He shrugged and shook his head, slipping his earbuds back in.

Gus met Cami’s look of frustration. One step forward and two back. “We don’t even know that she was related to them. At all. But at least it’s somewhere to start. If they did foster her, maybe they know where she is.”

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