Shores of Truth

Ch. 7, The View

 Travis

Travis hopped out of the car to follow her. The sun was low in the sky, but cast plenty of light illuminating her silhouette as she stood at the top of the hill smiling down at him. Travis caught his breath at the sight. She was an angel plucked from heaven standing before him. She shook her head playfully at his admiration and continued over the hill. He had to jog to follow her. When he could see over the hill he understood why she took him here. The trees parted enough to give a spectacular view. The town far below was tucked in a small cove and the vastness of Lake Michigan sat beside it. Despite or perhaps because of the water the town stood solid, a beacon against the ravages of time. Travis was lost taking in the sight as Nyx called him over. "Travis! Come eat something." From her bag she had pulled out an entire picnic on a plaid blanket over the grass. He made his way over to her.

 "Turkey or ham?" She asked pointing to the sub sandwiches she had gotten out.

 "Ham would be lovely," Travis said lounging on the blanket, "Sandwiches and crisps. You are quite the chef."

 "I am. I can also make Mac and cheese to die for," she quipped, "Oh and one more thing." Nyx pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses. "Now we can be fancy and sophisticated."

 "Paper plates and wine, this does show how cleverly romantic you are," Travis teased. Despite the sarcastic tone Nyx blushed. Taking the moment to regroup she served up the food. Travis was quick to jump in to help.

 "So I've learned you can't cook. Tell me something else about you."

 "I used to work in Chicago. Police work. Glorified desk jockey but I liked it."

 "Why move here?"

 "My mom lives here. After my dad died, it seemed like the right thing to do." She left out the part of failing to find her father’s killer.

 "I'm sorry for your loss."

 "Thank you." The following silence was long yet comfortable. There was no awkward need to fill it.

 "So what brings you to our little town?"

 "Beautiful women who have an excellent taste in wine. This is an excellent Riesling by the way. But in all seriousness I just had to get away." She seemed to understand the exhausted look in his eyes and the desperate need for a change of scenery.

 "Why? What could drive you away?"

 "I wish I could say just work. Yet now looking back I think it was something else entirely."

 Changing the subject instead she asked, "Where do you live? What do you do?"

 "I live in London as you might have guessed and I work in entertainment." Please let that be enough, he thought to himself.

 It seemed enough for her as she instead commented on his hometown. "Do you enjoy London?"

 "It's busy. There is a lot to do and see. Sometimes I think I'd enjoy living in the country though. I had never really considered it before. I grew up in pretty much the most boring village in existence. I always wanted to leave."

 "So you did and now you miss it." He nodded solemnly then asked, "Did you enjoy moving back?"

 "I didn't have a choice. It gets lonely, I suppose. There aren’t many people or least none I can really connect with.”

 As she gazed out at the setting sun steaks of light bounced off her hair causing a marked difference in the shine of her hair and smoothness of her skin, "You are the most beautiful women I have ever met." He leaned over to be met half way by her lips. His hand reached up to run through her soft hair. The locking lips soon turned passionate as they took deeper comfort in each other and the moment.

 She broke away, "Thank you." Nyx gave him a quick chaste kiss. "We're going to miss the sun setting though." Her hand felt warm in his. Travis wondered when they had started holding hands. All he could understand was how right this felt. Logically this would be a mess, but he shoved it to the back of his mind. Right now the world consisted of this moment, the two of them on a grassy hill watching the most enchanting sunset over the bluest waters.