"She went home with someone else that night?"

Hearing the disbelief from my best friend's mouth makes the events of my failed date sting that much more. 

I would like to make it known, I have a lot more swagger than what it seems. I don't normally ask a girl out, have her fail to recognize it's a date, and then give me a high five--as if I'm her wingman--and take off with someone else. 

No. Normally I'm the one taking the girl home but with Stella, it's been one failed attempt after another and frankly, I'm done trying. 
But thanks to my best friend getting married in Hawaii right before the school year starts, I'm stuck on a tropical island, watching Stella parade around in what she claims is a bathing suit. 

Unfortunately, that's not the worst of it, just the tip of the iceberg. Because what I think is going to be a relaxing vacation, avoiding the one girl I can't seem to make it work with, has turned into a spectacle of being recruited as Stella's doting fake fiancé so she can save face with an old "friend" from high school. 
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Now I'm navigating through purgatory while trying not to get turned on by the way she holds my hand or kisses my jaw. It's all fake, that's what I keep telling myself, even though it feels entirely too real.

Broody wildlife veterinarian Griffin Foster is done. Done trying to save the world. Done getting attached. He’s been fired twice for standing his ground and now he’s going to be content--by God--in small-town Louisiana, in a small veterinary practice, where there will only be small problems. 
 
Quiet and boring, though? Um, no. He’s been adopted by a loud, crazy Cajun family with a tiny petting zoo for him to care for. Hey, it’s not endangered tigers at a nationally renowned zoo, but a family of otters--and all the gumbo he can eat--isn’t a bad deal. 
 
Until she shows up. Again. 
 
The sunny, gorgeous optimist who stole his heart--and his favorite shirt--two months ago. Who clearly hasn’t heard the word “no” enough in her life. And who is the first woman to put even a tiny crack in his don’t-get-attached wall.

Charlotte “Charlie” Landry is the new marketing consultant for the family swamp-boat tour company and petting zoo. It might not have been her plan, but she is all in, ready to grow the business. Whether the hot, grumpy vet likes it or not. 
 
He doesn’t.