“Is she okay?” I whispered.
“The doctor has thoroughly checked her out. She’s almost seven pounds.”
“Is that…” I didn’t know the right word. “Good?”
She laughed. “It’s good. She’s a perfect size, not premature. And she doesn’t show any signs of drugs. Our girl has a touch of jaundice, so she’ll be here with us for a bit. But, otherwise, she’s perfect.”
She looked perfect to me.
She grinned up at me. “You saved her life, Mason. You’re a hero.”
“What’s jaundice?”
“An excess of bilirubin. Gives our girl this savage tan she’s got going. But with plenty of milk and some special light that we have in our intermediate nursery, she’ll be living her best life in no time.”
Daisy looked up at me. Our eyes locked, and I think we must have had the same thought:What was the best life for an abandoned baby?I had no idea what came next. I had the craziest thought:Would they give her to me since I found her?But that was nuts. I didn’t want a baby, nor did I have any idea how to raise one. But she looked so sweet and innocent and so quiet in Daisy’s arms that I wondered how hard it could be. But then I remembered that night I’d stayed over at my brother Parker and his wife Amelia’s because George and Greer were both projectile vomiting and… parenthood wasn’t that easy.
“Do you have kids?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. But I spend a lot of time taking care of other people’s.”
“Same,” I said. “But mine are bigger. I’m a high school coach.”
“I’ll have to come to a game. I just moved here, so I literally don’t know anyone.”
My eyes widened. “Wow. Well, you know me now. I can introduce you to some people if you want.”
She smiled. “I’d love that.”
I was about to respond as the officer entered the room. I slapped him on the back. “What’s up, Gar?” Then I said, “Gary Mendoza, this is Daisy…”
“Stevens,” she filled in for me.
“Nice to meet you,” he said. Then he turned to me. “This isn’t yours, is it?”
There was a twinkle in his eye, but still. That’s what I was talking about. A preconceived notion from a person who would never let the high school version of me go. But I laughed it off. “You know, Gary, I couldn’t always say this. But I am one hundred percent positive this is not my baby.”
“Can you walk me through this really quickly?”
I told him what I knew, which, frankly, wasn’t much.
“Well, look, this is more a DSS matter,” Gary said. “I was just in the neighborhood, so I wanted to make sure we didn’t have a criminal situation on our hands.”
Daisy shook her head. “No signs of trauma or abuse, thank goodness.”
Gary looked at me. “We’re presuming this is a high school student?”
I shrugged. “I would assume so, but I really have no idea.”
Daisy nodded. “Poor kid. High school can be really hard…”
There was more to that. I could tell. Gary said, “Mason, why don’t you come out into the hall with me.”
“Look,” Gary said, walking out of the room, “if you hear anything, let me know. DSS will be all over this, and, if the parents aren’t willing to step up, we really like to find next of kin when we can. So if any kids mention any leads, it could help us get this baby placed faster.”
I nodded. “I’ll do some digging.”
Gary shook his head. “Some kid is really, really lucky you were at the right place at the right time. A couple more hours, and we could have had a homicide on our hands.”
