Always, Almond Fudge

By Charlotte O'Shay

On a lengthy car ride to their annual seaside vacation, a mother recounts the true story of a sweet family tradition.
It's the summer of 1941 in the seaside town of Langford, Rhode Island, and seventeen-year-old Meredith Franklin works as a server at Seymore's Ice Cream Shoppe.
When aspiring baseball player Anthony Fanelli strolls into the ice cream shop, his teasing banter leads to romantic sparks and dreams of forever love.
Their whirlwind courtship comes to an abrupt halt on December 7, 1941, when America enters World War Two, forcing the couple to put their future on hold.
Decades later, a treasure trove of wartime letters details the romance of Merry and Anthony and the sacrifices of a generation.

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Aug 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781509232468

Charlotte O'Shay

Charlotte O'Shay was born in New York City into a big family and then married into another big family. Negotiating skills honed at the dinner table led her to a career in the law. After four beautiful children joined the crowded family tree, Charlotte gladly traded her legal career to write about happily ever afters in the City of Dreams. The Marriage Ultimatum is the first, standalone, story in the City of Dreams series.

Book preview

Inc.

But jeepers, if anything could sidetrack a girl it would be Anthony Fanelli. If anyone could turn a determined woman’s head in the direction of romance it was this handsome fellow who’d smiled big and placed his hand over his heart when he saw her sitting in the stands. Merry had blushed to the roots of her hair, hair that was pinned to the side in deference to the ninety-something degree heat. She’d worn a navy skirt and a simple white polo shirt—Rockets colors. A few of the Langford folk had looked her way at Anthony’s public display but Merry simply smiled and tilted her chin in response. It didn’t matter what stories they might carry back to her parents. Nothing would ever mar the memory of the first time she saw Anthony play.

Praise for Charlotte O’Shay

The writing can be summed up in three words: emotional, intoxicating, irresistible.

~NNLightBookHeaven.com

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Second Place

PRG Reviewers Choice Awards 2019

Novel with Military

THEIR NO-STRINGS AFFAIR

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Second Place

Oklahoma RWA

2019 International Digital Awards

Contemporary Short

FOREVER IN A MOMENT

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Second Place

Hudson Valley RWA

2019: Hook, Line & Sinker Contest

FOREVER IN A MOMENT

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Finalist

nnlightsbookheaven.com 2019 Holiday Romance

FOREVER IN A MOMENT

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Finalist

LVRWA I Heart Indie 2018 Erotic Romance

THE MARRIAGE ULTIMATUM

Always,

Almond Fudge

by

Charlotte O’Shay

One Scoop or Two

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Always, Almond Fudge

COPYRIGHT © 2020 by Evelyn P. McCabe

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Jennifer Greeff

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History

First Vintage Rose Edition, 2020

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-3246-8

One Scoop or Two

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

With gratitude to the greatest generation

for your boundless sacrifice.

You've always known the simplest pleasures

are often the sweetest.

Chapter One

On a traffic-jammed highway, north of Boston

Present day

Mom, okay. We get the idea. Sebastian pushed out a long breath. He had to find a way around the rules.

Oh, you do? His mom, preoccupied by the stop and go traffic, spared him a quick side-glance. He saw the corner of her mouth nearest him curve up so he knew she wasn’t really annoyed even though her words were abrupt. That was just the traffic talking.

Yes, we know it’s vacation, and we know we should be outdoors and off our devices. We get it. But we’ve been sitting in this traffic like, forever, and we’re sick of the license plate game. At least I am. He glanced over his shoulder at Angela and Lucy. His ten-year-old twin sisters in the back seat were playing Sudoku again. They didn’t look bored but that was because they had each other. I’m stuck without my cell phone and it’ll be hours before we reach Langford.

I hope you’re wrong about the traffic, Sebastian, but… Mom shrugged. The rest of her sentence, there’s nothing I can do about it, hung in the air, unspoken.

"We’re crawling along. Do you think you can pull over to the shoulder so I