Page 1 of Bravely Yours

Chapter One

SARAH

“I understand this is hard,but keep your head down and don’t do anything stupid.”

Would packing our crap and fleeing in the middle of the night be considered stupid? Probably. But at this point, that idea wasn’t completely off the table. I didn’t want my ex anywhere near my baby girl.

I blew out a breath. “Like what?”

“Like don’t lock the baby in the car. Stuff he could use againstyou.”

I glanced over to the purple Pack ’n’ Play in the living room area of my apartment. It was supposed to be a safe place for my one-year-old daughter to play, but instead, it became the cage she screamed from any time I put her down. Tonight, she’d fallen asleep early, so I’d gotten a reprieve from the tears while I cooked dinner. Hopefully I’d get a good six-hour stretch out of her, especially since she was asleep in her crib, which rarely happened.

It wasn’t fair. None of it was. The gift of a child shouldn’t be given to someone like Drew. All I could hope was that his time in jail had changed him. But what if it hadn’t? What if he hurt Nora? How do other parents handle these situations? I’d almost lost her once because of him. The thought of her being hurt was twisting my insides into knots.

“Sarah?” Elliot’s voice brought me back to the conversation. “The restraining order is in place, as well as all the stipulations regarding how the supervised parenting time will go.” A rustling noise came through the line, like he was shifting. “You won’t need to see each other, and his probation officer, as well as the social worker, will be there the entire time he’s with Nora. Remember, the court only granted him thirty minutes twice a month. I know you’re nervous, but trust me, this is actually the ideal situation.”

I huffed. Nothing about this was ideal. But there was only so much I could do. No way would I go against a court order, and although it was tempting, I wouldn’t run. I’d grown up in this small town. My parents lived here. I loved my job as a kindergarten assistant. But to protect my daughter? Disappearing didn’t seem completely unreasonable.

“I’ll be in touch once the parenting time is scheduled.”

“Okay.”

After I hung up with Elliot, I blinked down at my phone for several seconds, replaying the conversation. When the baby monitor on the kitchen island crackled, I let out a long sigh.Reluctantly, I made my way down the hallway to my bedroom and quietly pulled the door closed behind me. If she was just stirring, I might be able to soothe her back to sleep without picking her up.

I stood in front of her crib, gently rubbing her back, then jolted when a loud beeping echoed through the apartment. I craned my neck toward the door.

What the hell was that?

Ugh. Whatever it was would definitely wake Nora.

Wait.

Was that the smoke detector? My stomach sank. I had been pan-frying chicken on the stove when my lawyer called. Crap. I’d totally forgotten about it.

Nora pulled herself to stand, sleepily rubbing her eyes, then reached her chubby arms out to me. With a soothing shush, I picked her up and rushed back toward the kitchen.

Halfway down the small hallway, I was slammed with the acrid smell of burnt chicken. It was followed by a banging noise so loud I almost jumped out of my skin. Either someone was knocking on the door, or the grumpy old man who lived in the apartment above me was stomping.

Great. Just flipping great. Whoever it was would just have to wait.

As if the sounds and smells weren’t chaotic enough, Nora joined in, letting out a wail. I froze in place at the mouth of the hallway, overwhelmed, as the thick smoke drifted through the air coming from the small kitchen. How had it gotten this bad so fast?

How could I be this dumb? Not only had I forgotten about the food on the stove, but now I was holding my one-year-old and didn’t want to take her into the kitchen filled with smoke.

Nora would just have to cry it out. At least she would be safe in her Pack ’n’ Play. More banging echoed through the apartment, startling Nora and making her cry harder.

“Hold your suspenders, you grumpy old man. I’m working on it,” I screamed at the ceiling as I deposited Nora into her Pack ’n’ Play so I could deal with the burning chicken. Then I needed to open the windows and take Nora outside until the smoke cleared.

The dark, dense smoke wasn’t good for anyone, let alone a baby. And the last thing I needed was for the fire department to show up and insist we go to the emergency room to be checked for smoke inhalation. But with the way that these loud, obnoxious alarms were still blaring, that was exactly what would happen.

Wouldn’t that just round out this shitty night? Ironic, when my lawyer just saiddon’t do anything stupid.

Chapter Two

JAY

Two weeks.That’s exactly how long it had been since I’d had a full night of sleep. As much as I wanted my own space away from my parents and two younger sisters, this was not what I’d imagined it would be like when I agreed to sublet an apartment from my friend Owen.

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