“Welcome!” Julian’s mom said hugging each of us.

“Yes welcome, Isobel and I are so pleased all of you could come to help us share in our special day.” Julian’s handsome father, Havier said. We all excitedly chatted with Julian’s parents for a few minutes before Julian interrupted to give us a tour of the beautiful home we would be staying in. It was massive, fourteen bedrooms in all, a home theater, a gym, two infinite pools along with tennis and basketball court.

“I’ll show you guys your rooms,” Julian announced, leading the way through the massive ocean side villa.

We followed Julian outside onto the terrace and down the spiral stone staircase that hung above the ocean.

“There are stairs inside as well but I thought you guys might like to see how close to the ocean we are.” Julian smiled as we walked down the stairs.

We got to the first landing and Julian told Livy to put her bags in a massive room that had sliding glass doors that were open letting the ocean breeze whip through. We continued a few more stairs down and Julian showed Derrick and Audrey to their room. I caught that as interesting because I hadn’t realized those two were at the point of sharing a room, just goes to show how much I was paying attention to my friends. I made a mental note to ask Audrey later what was happening between them.

The group wondered around the stunning room. It had its own hot tub on the patio overlooking the ocean and that seemed to excite everyone.

“I’ll show Jenna to her room real quick and I’ll be right back,” Julian told the rest of our friends as they explored more of the room.

I followed Julian quietly down another set of stairs to a massive landing. I could see the beach was a just a few stairs away. It was beautiful, white sand nestled in between cliffs on either side. It was incredible.

“Here we are,” Julian said opening the sliding doors to the patio. This room also had an entire wall of glass doors that could be moved to either side to open the room to the outside.

“Thanks Julian.” I smiled at him.

“I’m sorry it is kind of far away. Originally I thought it was best to put you guys in the most private room…” He realized his mistake and didn’t finish his thought.

“It’s perfect, thank you,” I said trying to erase any awkwardness.

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but he’s a mess, Jenna. He knows he screwed everything up. He gets it. Maybe you guys could talk,” He suggested trying to plead the case for his friend.

I couldn’t really get mad at him for trying to take up for his friend but it still didn’t change the fact that Jamieson was a liar.

“I can’t Julian. I just can’t, not anymore,” I told him solemnly.

“I know, I just thought I would try.” He shot me a sideways smile.

I shook my head letting him know I understood and then he turned leaving me alone in my oversized romantic room.

“Isn’t this gorgeous?” Audrey said hanging over the huge sail boats rails.

“Please don’t fall overboard,” I told her.

“I won’t. I promise.” She said continuing to hang over the side, staring at the bright teal water below.

I had to admit it was breathtaking. I was glad I had decided to come on the trip with my friends. I had been here only few days but the sunshine was doing my soul good. The first day the girls and I sun bathed most of the day on the beach. I could feel my body soaking up the vitamin D, renewing my energy. Yesterday we explored downtown and the girls made the most of shopping. Today Isobel and Havier took us out sailing on their incredible sail boat. It was really more like a yacht with the option to be a sail boat but we were currently utilizing its sailboat capabilities.

“I’m going to go sit up the bow and watch for dolphins,” I told Audrey, walking the long pathway to the front of the huge boat.

I passed the guys who were drinking at the huge bar in the middle part of the main deck. They all smiled and waved at me as I headed toward the bow. I was doing a pretty good job of putting on a brave face with my friends, but I still preferred to be alone.

I sat on the white cushions on the bow crossed legged watching in delight as a school of dolphins tracked alongside our boat.

“They are cute, no?” Havier sat down beside me.

“They sure are,” I smiled at him warmly. I liked Julian’s father. I could tell he was a sweet man. I also could see where Julian got his handsome features from.

Havier sat next to me enjoying the dolphins for a long time without saying a word. But after some time he finally broke our silence.

“I know heartache, my dear, and I can see you are shouldering a heavy burden,” he spoke softly.

I sighed in acknowledgement. “I gave him a second chance and he made me look like a fool.”

Havier turned to study me. “I don’t know if Julian has explained to you why Isobel and I are getting married again, but let’s just say I thank God every day for second and third chances.”

I shook my head indicating I didn’t know what he was referring to.

“We were married for twenty-two years and I cheated on her. She of course found out and divorced me. I deserved that and more. I got caught up in myself and I lost track of what really mattered.”

“So what happened?” I was genuinely curious now.

“Well I married the young woman I was having an affair with. I thought she was young and would reinvigorate me. But that wasn’t the case. I quickly realized we were in different spots in our life, so of course that marriage declined rapidly. I knew I had made a mistake. Isobel and I had been together since we were teenagers and I missed her. I set my mind to winning her back.”

“And you did?” I asked in shock.

“Yes I did, and it took a long time to convince her to even talk to me without screaming but eventually we did talk and we slowly became friends again. Now two years later I am about to marry my soulmate for the second time in my life and it’s only because she found it in her heart to forgive me even when she had no reason to.” He smiled lightly.

“That’s a pretty amazing story. I am glad you found a way to work it out, but for me I think there is no hope,” I said giving him a sideways smile.

“Uh but that is where you’re wrong, my dear, there is always hope.” He stood up and patted me shoulder in encouragement.

I continued to sit watching the dolphins thinking about what Havier had told me. I wished I had it in me to forgive Jamieson, but I just didn’t trust that he wouldn’t lie to me again. Sometimes the hardest thing in life is accepting the truth about a person.

“How you doing?” Derrick asked breaking me out of my private reflection.

“Okay,” I answered, giving him my best fake smile.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it and I get that, so I’m just going to make this short.” He leaned against the railing facing me. “He’s a mess. He’s miserable and I’m worried about him. I think you should try to at least hear him out.”

“Derrick, I appreciate you looking out for your friend, but no. I can’t put myself through it again.”

“Alight, but just ask yourself this…why would he go to such lengths to make sure you didn’t marry that Cain guy?”

“Because he is an asshole,” I snapped back.

“Or is it because he loves you so much he fought for you tooth and nail. He may not have fought fair but doesn’t it say something for the guy that he went to such extremes to protect you from making the biggest mistake of your life?” Derrick didn’t wait for me to answer; he just turned and headed back down the pathway.

Derrick hadn’t said anything to me I hadn’t already considered, but that still didn’t erase the fact that he had lied to me for months. He could have come clean as soon as the engagement with Cain and I was broken. He kept the lie going for months but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. Was Jamieson hiding something else that I had yet to discover?