Celia laughed. “Yes. Exactly. James absolutely knows all about how important it is to have people to depend on. You’re a great team.”
“Professor Broussard?”
Harper turned with a smile, to find Sophie behind her. “Sophie! Hi!”
“Hi.” The girl gave her a big smile. “I was hoping to run into you here before you headed to class.”
“I do like my habits,” Harper admitted. She did. But maybe there was a way to balance that with the craziness of a life with James. Because she had to accept the fact that life with James would always be full of unexpected adventures.
“I left my hoodie over at your place the other night. I was wondering if I could stop by tonight and get it,” Sophie said. “And I’d love to say hi to Isaac.”
Hearing his name unexpectedly like that caught Harper by surprise, and she felt a jab in her chest. Her smile fell away, and she sucked in a quick breath.
“Are you okay?” Sophie asked, looking concerned.
Harper swallowed and nodded. “Yes. I… of course you can stop by for your hoodie, but… Isaac won’t be there.”
“Oh. If it’s not a good night—if you’re going to be out or something—I can come another time.”
“No. It’s not that.” Harper blew out a little breath. “He’s… It turned out that James isn’t his father. The DNA test came back. Actually, the same night you were there.”
Sophie frowned. “Oh, I see. But… what does that mean? Why isn’t Isaac with you?”
“He was taken to a foster home,” Harper told her, blinking against the tears. “Since he’s not James’s son, he doesn’t have any rights and can’t keep him. But he’s been looking for the mom and applying to be a foster parent and… it’s just complicated and will take some time. So he has to be in an already approved foster home for now.”
Sophie looked pale, and she was shaking her head. “No. That’s not right. He’s supposed to be with you.”
“We want him,” Harper said. “We’re going to try to get him back.”
“You are still together?”
“We… are. We’re not getting married right now. But we’re seeing each other.” She assumed that was true. Last night was the first time they’d talked about anything since Isaac had been taken away. But it had seemed good. She couldn’t marry him right now, but she loved him. She wanted to be with him. Wanted to see where it would all go without the forced togetherness. And panic and exhilaration that Isaac had brought to them.
“Why aren’t you getting married?” Sophie asked, frowning.
“We were going to get married to make things easier with Isaac. But that’s not necessary now.” She shrugged. “It was really fast, and we just need to take some time.”
“But you need to be together to get him back.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“The mom wanted you to have him,” Sophie insisted. She was breathing hard.
“We don’t really have proof of that,” Harper said. “If she actually said that, turned over her rights, worked on a private adoption with us, something, it would be easier. But as it is, the state has no proof of… anything, really.”
Sophie started shaking her head. “No. This is wrong.”
Harper reached out and took her hand. “I know it feels wrong. I’ve been sick and sad ever since it happened, but the social worker said that he’s doing well, and the home is great and—”
“How do you know the social worker?” Sophie broke in.
“Um… through the hospital. St. Michael’s. Through a nursing friend of ours.”
“What’s her name?”
Harper frowned. “Shelly Welsh.”
“I need to go.” Sophie turned and started across campus.
Something niggled at the back of Harper’s mind.
“Wow,” Celia finally commented.
“I need to go after her,” Harper said. “Something’s not right.”
Celia nodded. “Looks like maybe you’re going to have to be the one to knock on this door.”
Harper gave her friend a quick hug. “Talk to you later.”
She started across the grass toward the parking lot where Sophie was headed. As she walked, she sent a group email to her students canceling class.
She got to her car as Sophie was pulling out of the lot. Harper caught up with her three blocks later. She didn’t even mind if Sophie saw her following.
It only took four more turns for Sophie to confirm what Harper had suspected.
At the next stop light, she texted James.
Need you to meet me at St. Michael’s.
He responded almost immediately. On my way. What’s going on? You okay?
I’m okay. Sophie’s on her way there. Shelly’s office.
James stepped off the elevator on St. Michael’s sixth floor, his heart thundering.
He wasn’t sure why he was here. But he had an idea.
Raised voices became clear as he turned down the hallway. He picked up his already fast pace.
“He’s mine! I get to decide what happens!”
James arrived to find Sophie squaring off across Shelly’s desk from the social worker. There was another woman standing on Shelly’s side. Harper was on Sophie’s side of the desk.
“It’s complicated now, Miss Duncan,” Shelly said.
“I have his birth certificate. I’m his mother. This shouldn’t be complicated,” Sophie said.
Sophie was Isaac’s mother. That sunk in faster than James would have expected. Not that it made sense, exactly, but it made sense that they were here now. And at least there was a connection between them and Isaac’s mother.
Though it was between Sophie and Harper, not him.
Harper noticed James first. She gave him a wide-eyed oh, shit look followed by a relieved smile. “Shelly, please,” Harper said to the other woman. “Help us here.”
“She abandoned him,” Shelly said. “That essentially terminates her rights.”
“I didn’t!” Sophie protested. “I left him with a friend who I knew would take care of him!”
“But you left him,” Shelly said.
“But the statute says that it has to be for four months without making myself known or six months without providing for his care at all or maintaining any contact,” Sophie said. “It’s only been a few days, and I was going to tell Harper and give her the birth certificate and everything as soon as I knew she was in love. And I helped take care of him the other night and planned to keep helping babysit.”
Everyone stared at her for nearly a whole minute.
“You know the child abandonment statute?” Harper asked.
But James wasn’t surprised. This was the girl who’d showed up to babysit with a binder.
“Of course,” Sophie said. “I looked it all up ahead of time.” She frowned. “I wouldn’t just drop my baby off on a stranger’s doorstep. I knew you were home. I put him there, I knocked, and I ran.”
James was starting to understand that this girl had not really abandoned her child. She’d… provided another home for him when she thought she couldn’t give him a good one.