Fragile Sanctuary (Sparrow Falls #1)

by Catherine Cowles

For all those walking the path of grief. It's a winding road that changes but never ends. Just remember, you're not alone. You carry them with you wherever you go. And you'll see the world in all its colors because you loved so deeply.

Middle-of-Nowhere, Oregon.

Fallon had three older brothers. One by blood, Copeland. One adoptive, Shepard. And one foster, Trace.

As fun and free as Fallon could be with me, she shut down completely when we were in a group. She pulled everything that was so wonderful and special about her away and put it behind the shell she’d constructed to keep everyone out.

“Love you to infinity.”

“Love you to infinity times infinity.”

“Infinity sq...

“Infinity to infinit...

owner better. Shepard Colson

abandonment.

Knowing you were left outside a fire station when you were barely a month old could mess with someone’s head. Make them feel like they needed to prove their worth. Shep had done all that and more.

Shep

Happiness was the greatest torture of all because it could all be taken away—and it was so much worse than if you’d never experienced it at all.

poppies and lupine.

“Can’t handle being away from you,”

“Especially not when you’re hurting.”

“I didn’t want to care about anyone. But you shot t...

“You didn’t sneak past my defenses, you bulldozed them. Reckless to the bone. And maybe you made me brave enough to be reckless, too.”

“I hate that this happened to you. That you lost people you loved. That a monster ripped away so much from you. But you are a beautiful person, Anson. A good person. And you are that way because of what you’ve been through.”

“You are the kind of person who takes time with a terrified dog to show him that all men aren’t bad. The kind of person who sleeps on a lumpy couch because you knew I was too proud to say I was scared. And you’re the kind of person who made it safe for me to say some of the things I was most scared to give voice to.”

“You made me feel seen, Anson. Understood when I always felt like a bit of a freak. Do you get what a gift that is?”

“Sometimes, it feels like the guilt is going to swallow me whole,”

“You make me want to reach for things I thought were dead and buried. You make me feel again,”

“Even if it’s pissing me the hell off.”

“Sometimes, we need a little anger to remind us there are still t...

“I care about you, Rho. I didn’t want to, but I didn’t have a choice.”

“You keep touching me like that, and I’m gonna come in my pants like a thirteen-year-old,”

“There hasn’t been anyone in a long time. And, fuck, I want to feel all of you. Everything.”

“Rhodes.”

“Eyes on me. I need it.”

“Could look at you for years and still see something new every time.”

“I am. You’ve faced more hardship than almost anyone I’ve known. But you’ve never let it harden you. That’s a miracle, Rho. You let those things make you better instead of worse. There’s no way you won’t live the rest of your life that way.”

“Home is wherever you are,”

“You’re my sanctuary. Where I feel peace. Where I feel seen. Don’t want anything more.”

“...

“I want you to m...

“You’re going to have to deal with dick flowers an...

“Small price to pay for a life with you.”

It could never be anything other than ours. Our safe place. Our sanctuary. Our home.