LITTLE GIRL LOST - SARAH BETH LEE (tharntype novel english .TXT) 📗

lost all track of time as she heard a woman frantically calling Molly’s name.

“I’m over here mom.”

A petite blond haired lady around thirty came around the corner. She stopped in front of Hannah and smiled.

“Hi my name is Andrea but you can call me Andie; thank you for entertaining my little Molly.”

Hannah stood up and offered her hand, “Oh no problem I enjoyed it. You ladies be sure to come visit us again real soon.”

Hannah walked with them to the front of the store. She laid the book on the counter with Andy’s magazines.

“Oh my we don’t need the book.”

Hannah smiled and put the book in the bag, “It’s fine I want Molly to have it; every little girl needs Winnie The Pooh.”

Andie looked around as if she were afraid she might be caught doing something wrong. Hannah stifled a smile.

“It’s fine Andie, trust me, just ask Jeff.”

Jeff had been standing to the side until he heard his name. He immediately smiled and joined the conversation.

“Ask me what?”

“Well I was just telling our new friends here how it was okay for me to give them this book.”

She pulled the book out of the bag just enough for Jeff to see Winnie the Pooh, “Oh of course it is.”

Andie smiled and accepted the bag, “Well thank you both so much. Come on Molly we have to meet your dad for dinner.”

“Bye Peyton thanks for reading to me and for spending the afternoon with me.”

Hannah waved bye to the young girl as she walked out the door. She could feel Jeff scrutinizing her every move. She turned to meet his eyes and shrugged her shoulders at the question she knew was coming.

“So how is it that when you’re Peyton you can smile and interact with the customers just fine but as Hannah you freeze up and retreat inside the dark recesses of your own mind?”

Hannah knew he was right but she wasn’t sure what the answer was.

“I guess it’s easier to be me when I am pretending to be someone else.”

Jeff looked at her in confusion, “You do realize that is so twisted?”

“It’s just that when I am someone else no one expects anything of me. I can be whoever I want to be and no one knows who I really am. I don’t have to be perfect or smart or the one with all the answers I can just be the nice girl who reads to the kids and makes them smile.”

Jeff knew that no one knew who she really was. She always worked the floor answering questions, stocking shelves and cleaning up but what no one would have ever guessed was that she was the owner and the president of Roberts Publishing. He wished that she would open up and let people see the wonderful person she really was.

“Hannah you are one in a million and one of these days you will stop beating yourself up and blaming yourself for everything that is wrong in the world.”

Hannah laughed, “Not in the whole world, just in my small world.”

Jeff glared at her as she took off the vest and tossed him the keys to the doors, “Do me a favor and lock up?”

He leaned over the counter and barely caught the keys, “Gees you throw like a girl.”

“I am a girl.”

Jeff laughed, ‘Yeah, yeah excuses, excuses. So why am I locking up? You got a hot date tonight?”

She could feel her face turning a dozen shades of red at his teasing,”Oh you know it, me a bottle of wine and a juicy romance by Nora Roberts, no relation.”

Jeff laughed as she walked out the door and jumped in her 1964 Shelby Mustang. She was completely unaware of the man sitting at the coffee bar observing their entire interlude.
Chapter Three Next Question

CHAPTER THREE
Next Question

Hannah paced by the window watching the sunset and she wondered what had happened to all her dreams. She hadn’t always been this way, afraid of what might come next. She had once been a vibrant little girl with no fear, who had a zest for life and all that it had to offer. She missed that little girl and even now as a 25 year old woman she wished she knew what had happened to that little girl she used to know. She took a sip of her wine before closing the drapes and heading to her sanctuary. She walked into the bathroom her retreat from the world and all its problems. She lit the candles and turned to place her I-pod on the docking station. She closed her eyes chose one of her many playlists at random would it beU-2, Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, Linkin Park or Lifehouse? She waited to see what played and the slow notes of Broken drifted in the spacious room filled with flowers, candles and a spa just waiting for Hannah to slip inside and close her eyes and drift away for a while. She listened to the heartfelt song just what she needed sentimental and reflective. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and asked her self again why she liked songs that tugged at her heart strings and made her think of what she were missing, as if she didn’t already know. She was about to untie her robe when she heard the door bell ring. She wasn’t expecting anyone so who was at her door on a Saturday night at six o’clock? She bet it was someone looking for the pretty blonde across the hall, which happened all the time. She walked to the door and looked through the peephole. She saw a tall skinny guy in jeans and a Linkin Park tee shirt he seemed harmless enough. She removed the chain and opened the door.

“Hi may I help you?’

The guy flashed a smile and offered his hand, “Hi my name is Zach and I am taking a survey do you have a few minutes?”

Hannah looked at the guy and wondered how he had gotten in the building. She watched his face as he waited for her to say something. She wasn’t sure if she should let him in or not. He really did look like a nice guy but looks could be deceiving.

“Ok first of all what’s your favorite football team?”

“The Indianapolis Colts.”

“Second what’s your favorite band?”

“Duh Linkin Park.”

“Ok two out of two not bad, here’s the clincher who is your favorite wrestler?”

“Ok call me old school but its Sting.”

“Okay I can live with that but the correct answer would be Shawn Michaels the Heartbreak Kid,”

“I see you know a little bit about wrestling, nice very nice.”

“My dad used to watch it when I was a kid.”

“Well for the record I liked HBK until he turned on Brett Hart, after that not so much.”

Hannah laughed as she opened the door and ushered her new friend in. He followed her to the couch and sat down. He wasn’t sure if she would even answer the door so now he wasn’t sure what to do. He took in the elegant apartment it was obviously expensive but oddly enough not pretentious, it felt inviting.

“So Zach is it?”

“Well technically it’s Zachary but please call me Zach, when I hear Zachary I look for my dad.”

Hannah laughed at his scrunched up nose and she knew that she liked this quirky guy.

“Ok So Zach what kind of survey are you doing?”

Zach shuffled some papers around and got his pen out of his pocket, “Well it’s for a research paper about human nature and how women and men differ.”

Hannah wasn’t sure if she would be much help but what the hell.

“Ok so what do you want to know?”

“First what is your name and age?”

“My name is Peyton and you know it is impolite to ask a lady her age.”

Zach laughed, “Well you can’t be over fifty so we can skip that one.”

Hannah found herself laughing at his oddball sense of humor.

“I am half that so go ahead with the next question.”

“What’s your favorite football team?”

“The Colts but my favorite player is Randy Moss the best receiver in the game.”

“Ok I guess I can live with that so what’s your favorite color?”

“My favorite color is blue, like the color of the sky on a clear perfect day.”

“OK what makes you take notice of a guy or a girl if you’re into that kind of thing?’

Hannah laughed at the blush that tinted his face as he muttered the last part under his breath. He was so adorable.

“Well I am not into that sort of thing so relax. As far as guys I am not much help there either.”

Zach looked at her and noticed her face was turning a brighter shade of red than his had been just moments ago.

“I suppose you have a husband and have grown immune to the effects of guys?”

Hannah laughed, “No but I don’t really go out or interact with people. I pretty much stay to myself. In fact this is really not like me at all letting some strange guy in my apartment.”

“Well I feel honored so no husband or boyfriend?”

“No, in fact I have never had a boyfriend. As I said I don’t get out much.”

Zach looked at Hannah as she shyly looked anywhere but at him. He found it hard to believe that a girl as lovely and nice as Hannah had never had a boyfriend. He watched her face as it was dusted with a soft pink blush.

“Ok so you choose not to date?”

“How do you know that it’s as simple as no one has ever asked me out?”

“I find it hard to believe that no guy has ever asked you out.”

Hannah continued to look across the room avoiding Zach’s probing eyes, “Well I graduated high school when I was fourteen so I was always younger than my classmates and then I graduated college at nineteen so of course I was kind of out of place there as well. Then I entered the work force and once again I was like the new kid on the