When she meets the Bravos, she has found kindred spirits who are equally invested in making the world a better place, one random act of kindness at a time. As she becomes better and better friends with the struggling siblings, she realizes just how high their financial stakes are. Worse, neither sibling partner of Bravo Catering will accept her charity.
Instead they accept her kindnesses in other ways, particularly with all their work at a progressive church that seeks to feed the hunger, clothe the poor and be sanctuary for the downtrodden.
The more they accept her for being who she is, the more she is able to grow and blossom into the independent young woman she has always wanted to be... despite the tiny box that had been crafted for her by her status of wealth and privilege. This empowers her to consider breaking free - to be honest with who she is no matter what the cost.
Better still, she finally finds the person who can give her this love and acceptance in ways she never before dreamed possible. She has fallen in love at last... and is willing to risk all her money to marry the her newfound soul mate.
Naomi Bravo is one-half of the hottest new catering company in big demand for Houston's elite. Trained in New York City and completely self-made, she clings to the core values her long-struggling single mother taught her: If you can work enough for it, you can make any dream come true. Naomi wasn't sure that all of her dreams could come true, but she knew she had to do what she could to make life easier for others, particularly those she loved the most. After returning to Houston to hold her beloved family together, she works her way from selling muffins out of her car to catering large events for Houston's most powerful families. She has one real objective: she wants to lift her family out of economic dire straits, no matter what she has to do to make that happen. Her secrets run deep, especially concerning her new friend, Lissette, who has unexpectedly taken her under her wing.
The three become an unlikely trio, and a family of choice, though many complications threaten to tear them all apart.
Excerpt from The Undisciplined Bride
Lissette Goodreau had learned from childhood that she could have her own life as long as she always made sure to carve out some Peyton time. An afternoon spent with the proper amount of doting and duty could free up an entire week, so she made that sacrifice that Friday afternoon, when it became clear that Peyton was going to hound her to death if she didn’t. She sat in the passenger side of Peyton’s convertible, driven from shop to shop, dragged from dressing room to dressing room, while listening to the ire of Peyton’s life: that she couldn’t have exactly what she wanted the minute before she decided she wanted it.
By the time they got to Shop #3, Lissette was ready for the real thing to be poured into her champagne flute, not just some sparkling cider. A dozen crumpled dresses later, they headed for lunch to refuel. Lissette ordered a dirty martini before they were seated.
After a week spent with children whose fondest wishes included living long enough to see their next birthday, Peyton’s manufactured drama was even more grating than usual. The dresses were inferior, the shop girls weren’t fawning enough, and the clock was ticking on her chance to find The Dress before her doll maker could make an exact creation of Peyton for her big day. It was a tradition her parents started way back on her first birthday. After that, every significant event was marked with a personalized doll to add to her collection. There was a First Day of School Peyton, a Sweet Sixteen Peyton, a Homecoming Queen Peyton, and a College Graduate Peyton. There was no way in this world or any other that Peyton would allow herself to marry without a Bridal Peyton. That deadline was even more pressing than any alterations that could be done between now and October. The usual logic was to have an eight-month window so there would be time for at least three fittings between choosing The Dress and The Big Day. Mr. Holzmann’s window was a teeny bit narrower than that. He preferred a full year to prepare the doll, but he’d settle for eight months. He could probably do it within six, but he made it clear to Peyton he’d never deliver a doll that wasn’t truly ready. The closest they ever cut it was Homecoming Queen Peyton, which they ordered and she posed for long before her name was even up for a vote to win. That was a six-month doll, and it was her least favorite.
It was her epic meltdown that made her German doll maker from New Braunfels swear he’d never deliver another rush job. If she wanted a doll, she had to give him the time he demanded to get it right.
This was her truest deadline, and all she could talk about as she plowed through her salad.
Well, almost all. She stealthy slid Mateo Bravo into the conversation, as she was dying to know exactly what was going on with her mousy best friend and the hottest, most annoying man she’d ever met.
“So catch me up to date with your children’s… hospital… thing,” Peyton said between bites. Her blue eyes locked onto Lissette, cornering her like a wobbly-kneed gazelle.
Lissette swallowed the olive she had been chewing on from her second dirty martini. Peyton never asked her about her fundraising. She really never even asked her about her life. Instead Lissette was a verbal trampoline. Peyton would talk about herself, and Lissette would volley it back to her with the appropriate level of worship to keep Peyton happy.
“What’s there to know?” Lissette shrugged. “Big gala in about three weeks, hopefully we’re going to raise enough to finish that new wing at the hospital. That’s another three hundred rooms and a brand new surgical center with all the latest technology.”
Peyton tried not to roll her eyes. “That’s a lot riding on it. Surprised you are trusting that new caterer for such a big event.” Lissette narrowed her eyes as she glanced up at Peyton’s face. “You’re trusting your wedding to them.”
Peyton waved a hand dismissively. “That was Daddy. He fell in love with the food after they catered the last dinner party. Personally I think it was mediocre at best, but hey. One less thing to worry about for the wedding.”
Lissette sat back in her chair. Never had Peyton Prescott relented on any small detail of a big event in which she was the star. Why was she bullshitting her now? “A lot of Mother’s friends were singing their praises.”
“Is that how you found them?” Peyton wanted to know.
It was such an innocently delivered question, but somehow Lissette understood that she finally had something that the Great Peyton Prescott wanted. And, for the first time in her life, she felt less than accommodating. “Why do you ask?”
“You have to admit how weird it is. Some no-name, struggling caterers land in our laps and start wowing all our elite set of friends. God knows they certainly don’t know how to act among us, if that idiot in a monkey suit is any indication.” A smile broke apart Lissette’s face. So that was it. Mateo Bravo had dared to mock her highness, and she was strung up in knots trying to figure out why anyone would be above trying to impress her. It was a game, and Lissette was up to bat. “You have me to blame for that, I guess,” she said, trying her best not to chuckle.
“You? What do you mean?”
“I found Naomi and Mateo when I was out church shopping. They were hosting a soup kitchen and I was really impressed with the quality of the food they were serving people who couldn’t even afford to pay them.”
Peyton didn’t know which part of the story to attack first. “Wait. What? Church shopping?”
With a finger, Lissette ordered another martini. She turned back to Peyton. “Yes. Church shopping.”
“But we’ve always gone to the same church. We were practically born there. Pastor Hannigan is like our grandfather.”
Lissette smirked. “Trust me. He favors some ‘grandchildren’ more than others.”
Peyton didn’t know what to think. Their families were steeped in tradition, from the schools they chose to the churches they attended. Everything had been passed down from one generation to the other, and there had never been any reason at all to change anything. The church especially was where they were forgiven for being so wealthy in a world that had so little. They could build houses for the poor, feed the hungry with their massive food pantry, even sponsor certain inner city school children in private learning institutions, all by dropping a check in the collection plate every Sunday. They, and their equally privileged friends, found comfort in their united effort to make the world a better place, while driving away from their weekly duty in their $40,000-dollar cars to the multi-million dollar mansions they called home.
It was a comfortable place for Peyton, but it had been suffocating Lissette for years. She didn’t realize how much of a mismatch it was until she moved to Austin to go to school. There she had dabbled in different religions and philosophies, trying to find the one that would fill her spiritual holes.
The closest she had come was the Church of the Works, which she attended more than five months before. There everyone was welcomed, no matter the color of their skin or their social status. All one needed was the willingness to do the work set out in Christ’s ministry in the Bible. They were to feed the hungry, clothe and shelter the poor, heal the brokenhearted, visit the jails and let those who felt like they had no place in the world find sanctuary. There was no laundry list of rules to follow except one: to love one’s fellow man as one loved him or herself.
She jumped right in to roll up her sleeves and help serve the congregation after their Sunday service, which was where she met Naomi Bravo for the first time. The Spanish beauty had a wide smile for each and every person who appeared before her with an empty plate, which she filled to overflowing with the most amazing food that Lissette had ever tasted.
But what had won her over, ultimately, was when Naomi would refuse any money for her services. She’d give it all back to Reverend Mitchell, who used her generous contribution to fund those projects that meant so much to the church. When they found out about the Children’s Hospital drive, Reverend Mitchell and Naomi were the first ones to offer their services, for free, to raise money to help her.
She’d found another home in Church of the Works, and new friends in Naomi and her brother, Mateo. Sunday became a date she couldn’t break. Each and every weekend she could be found helping them prepare the food they’d give away for free, just because people were in such desperate need. Soon, Lissette looked forward to the laborious weekend more than any other time in the week. She’d written her fair share of checks in the past for every charity that had marched itself in front of her. But never had she felt as productive as when she was covered with flour and all kinds of sauce, laughing with Naomi as they prepared pans full of food late into each and every Saturday night.
They drank wine, they shared stories from their vastly different backgrounds. They formed a friendship that made her paper doll propping for Peyton even more intolerable, but Naomi insisted that Peyton needed her, and she couldn’t just give up when it got too hard.
Those conversations led to others, when Naomi had taken her into her confidence about the financial hurdles her family faced. They were on the verge of losing everything, including the one thing that money couldn’t replace. Lissette held onto Naomi as she cried on her shoulder, holding onto every belief that goodness was the reward in and of itself. She was the most remarkable person Lissette had ever known. And she had something that Naomi needed desperately: connections. After that, Lissette repaid each and every kindness by pimping them out to her stupidly rich family and friends to ensure Bravo Catering could get the recognition and the business they so richly deserved.
But Peyton wouldn’t appreciate this story, since it didn’t involve her, so Lissette had never shared it. Now Peyton was staring at her like she had grown a third head just because she didn’t want to live the life someone else had crafted for her generations before. It reminded Lissette once again that their world didn’t allow for coloring outside the lines. They had to marry a certain type of spouse, they had to live in a certain type of neighborhood, and they had to attend the same churches and clubs as all of their equally wealthy friends.
It was a very exclusive club so many fought to get into, and Lissette had subtly been trying to break out of it for years. “Well, I guess this answers why you’re unavailable on Sundays,” Peyton said as she pushed her plate away. It was a $20 salad, and she barely ate half. It’d end up in the trash where someone who had absolutely nothing could get ticketed for picking it out to have something, anything, to eat.
“Yes,” Lissette affirmed. “That’s why God invented six other days to get things done.”
Peyton rolled her eyes. “Well, I’d like to see the church that produces the likes of Mateo Bravo. That’s the cockiest son of a bitch I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting.”
Lissette once again suppressed her laughter, especially when Peyton probed further.
“You looked pretty cozy the other day. Don’t tell me you’re slumming with someone like that.”
Lissette shrugged. “He is quite handsome,” she baited.
“Please,” Peyton snorted. “Bargain basement at best. You’re selling yourself short if that’s what you’re willing to settle for, Lissette. Honestly.”
“Oh come on,” Lissette grinned. “Don’t tell me you’re not the teensiest bit curious. All that raw sexual appeal… and that body. I mean, my God.”
“Yawn,” Peyton said as she looked away. “Leland is ten times the man Mateo Bravo is.”
“It’s a good think you think so,” Lissette agreed. “Considering you’re marrying him.”
“You’re next down the aisle,” Peyton changed the subject easily. “Just do us all a favor and aim a little higher than a caterer, please.”
Lissette’s eyes sparkled. It was easy to see that ship had already sailed, and it pissed Peyton off even more. “Caterers can be a lot of fun,” she informed her friend with a knowing wink. “They keep it plenty hot in the kitchen.”
“Check!” Peyton demanded as she glanced around for the waiter.
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