One

      Portia Soto’s mama always said doctors didn’t grow on trees. That an exotic name couldn’t make up for her plain looks. And to count her blessings if she got a proposal from a podiatrist twice her age.

      Clearly, Portia’s mama hadn’t counted on her daughter ever sitting beneath a towering palm watching Dr. Easton Lourdes hang upside down by his knees as he tried to save an ivory-billed woodpecker. An endangered species and thus warranting the wildlife preserve veterinarian’s full attention. Which was convenient, since that meant he wouldn’t notice he’d totally captured Portia’s.

      Between the branches of the ancient black mangrove, small stars winked into her vision, the lingering violet of sunset fading into black. The moments just after sunset in the wildlife preserve were Portia’s favorite. Night birds trilled overlapping tunes through the dense, steamy woods. Everything seemed somehow prettier, more lush and flamboyant in the absence of sunlight—the preserve transformed into a decadent Eden. At night, the place was a mysterious beauty, far more enticing than Portia had ever considered herself to be.

      Except she didn’t feel much like herself when she was around Dr. Lourdes.

      To be frank, Easton was hot. Really hot. Sexy in a shaggy-haired, unconventional way. An extremely