Holiday in Houston — Bettye Griffin

ONE GORGEOUS RENTAL GOWN, FOUR MAGICAL NIGHTS...

Get your holiday sparkle on with this novella of roughly 20,000 words, part of a series revolving around the Internet rental of one very special formal...

To Larissa Carvalho and her mother Valentina, the McGee family of Houston, Texas, are their saviors. The family, in Brazil for an extended work assignment, got Valentina and her young daughter out of the slums of Rio after Valentina's husband was murdered. Larissa, just four years old at the time, grew up idolizing Devin, the younger of the McGee's two sons. Not having seen him since her mother remarried around the same time Devin left for college hasn't dimmed her crush, even though their paths haven't crossed in a decade-and-a-half…

Devin McGee is disappointed when his planned date for the Snow Ball, Houston's premier African-American charity event held just a few nights before Christmas, falls through. Not wanting to be perceived as available by a horde of husband-hunting females, he considers not going when his mother suggests she get the daughter of her longtime housekeeper to be his date. Devin remembers Larissa as a cute pigtailed kid and can't imagine them having anything in common, but agrees to the arrangement. He's totally unprepared for the stunning woman Larissa has become…

Could Larissa's long-held dreams actually come true on this Holiday in Houston?