To Cherish
Jacelyn Crocker is new in town, or so a handful of people in the small community of Brockport, NY, think she is. A decade ago, Jacey uprooted herself and headed west to the California coast where she attended art school and built a life surrounded by people she thought she could rely on. Rarely coming home, she lost touch more and more with the one person she could call her best friend, Sutton. When Jacey’s brother needs help with the family business, she comes back — only to find her friend has moved, leaving behind a web of lies and shattered hearts.
Tommy Stratford is a family man. Loyal, determined, and a hopeless romantic, he took a leap of faith when he was told he was going to build a family of his own. Jumping into the unknown was nothing new for him. But everything changed when Tommy’s dream became more of a nightmare — one that connects him with Jacey in ways they didn’t realize.
Forging a friendship, Jacey and Tommy find they can be whole without the person they thought completed each of them. Friendships are tricky, though, and there are a lot of grey areas. Judgments get clouded when intimacy is added to the equation, and they find themselves asking, “Is friendship enough?”
About M.L. Pennock (Syracuse, New York Author)
Born and raised in Western New York, M.L. Pennock learned early on the benefits of growing up in the country — bare feet, lake swimming, bonfires, mud pies, and mastering the art of playing tag in the dark. As a young girl, she wrote stories, which evolved to writing crappy poetry on pieces of notebook paper during chemistry class in high school. There was also some crappy poetry written on her bedroom walls. All this led to the decision to not be a veterinarian when she grew up, whenever that might be.
M.L. attended Alfred University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and communication studies, before going on to earn a Master of Arts in communications from SUNY College at Brockport.
She’s still barefoot most of the time and thinks playing in the dirt is the best thing for getting out of an emotional funk. There hasn’t been a single crappy poem written in years. M.L. and her husband live in the Syracuse area with their three daughters.
