Page 69 of Julian

Julian smiles and takes my hand in his. It looks like he wants to speak, but he doesn’t, instead watching me take it in. That gesture is even more significant.

A few more turns, a longer stretch along the coast, and then the car slows.

Gates appear ahead—tall, towering even. They open automatically.

“I hope the house is in okay shape,” he says.

We pull through, the drive curving gently until the “house” comes into view. I’ve seen houses. This isn’t one. This is a massive villa.

It’s expansive and overwhelming in scale, built to blend into the landscape rather than dominate it. Soft stones with wide terraces that spill out toward the ocean like the place was designed to lead your eyes straight to the horizon.

I don’t move when the car stops. I sit there, taking it in, my mind struggling to catch up to what I’m seeing.

The driver opens the door.

The breeze hits me again.

The sound of the ocean drifts in, rhythmic and calming, like it’s been waiting for me.

And as I stand there, looking out at this beauty that is so far removed from the life I know, one thought settles quietly in the back of my mind—

There’s no going back to before this.

Julian’s seaside villa really is spectacular, a place I only thought existed on screensavers from the early 2000s. And yet, here it is. And here I am. I’d pinch myself but I’m running on such a high, I don’t know that I have the coordination to.

I step farther onto the property. It’s huge, but not in a cold, echoing way.

“Okay,” I murmur under my breath, turning slowly in a half circle as I take it all in. “This is… unreal.”

Julian watches me, hands tucked casually into his pockets, that faint, knowing smile playing at his mouth like he’s seen this exact reaction before.

“Too much?” he asks.

I glance at him, then back out toward the view, where the horizon stretches endlessly. “No,” I say honestly. “Just… more than I expected, though I guess I didn’t really know what to expect.”

My eyes drift outward again, pulled toward the centerpiece of it all: the pool.

It’s enormous, a saltwater infinity edge that seems to spill straight into the ocean beyond, the surface catching the bright sunlight in soft, shimmering ripples. Off to one side, a sunken Jacuzzi steams lightly, the water bubbling like it’s been waiting all day to be used.

And just beyond that—

“Is that a sauna?” I ask.

Julian follows my gaze. “It is.”

And next to it, set into the high-end stone like what one would find at a premium spa, is a cold plunge pool, the water still and light blue.

I let out a quiet laugh. “Sauna and cold plunge?”

“I’m all about wellness,” he says simply.

“Right,” I reply, shaking my head, amused.

But it’s not even the pool or the spa setup that holds me.

It’s what’s past it: the beach. The sand is impossibly white, soft, even from this distance. And the water—wow—the water is crystal clear, that same surreal blue I saw from the plane, shifting in color as the light hits it.

“You can walk straight out there? I mean, onto the beach?” I ask, glancing back at Julian.