LITTLE GIRL LOST by SARAH BETH LEE (bill gates books to read TXT) 📖

he walked in so full of hate and resentment he wanted to lash out at the first person he saw. He had not been prepared for the shy, quiet little boy with the coke bottle glasses, snotty nose and painfully shy smile. He just didn’t have the heart to be cruel to the kid. He had instantly felt protective of this boy. Nick smiled to himself as he remembered Zach trying to teach him how to play Nintendo 64 but Zach’s favorite game had been Mario Brothers and Nick had favored Mortal Kombat violence and blood was something he had been able to relate to back then. Nick found himself smiling at the memory as he walked into the de-tox center.

After several hours of debriefing he was finally cleared to leave the Pentagon and head home. He pulled out of the parking garage and inserted his security card at the gate. He exited the garage and pushed his foot as far down on the gas pedal as it would go. He loved the feel of the wind in his hair and the sound of Linkin Park blaring on the radio. He knew that a lot of people didn’t like the whiney melodramatic rock band but he loved the feel of the music and the reality of the lyrics. He felt they were talking just to him with every song they sang. He lowered the windows on his 57’ Mustang and belted the chorus at the top his lungs. He knew he needed to unwind and figure out what to do about Hannah but he was too tired to think clearly. He pulled into the apartment complex and made his way to the back of the grounds, where he parked his car on the curb in front of his condo. He raised the windows and locked the doors before going to check his mail. He knew that Zach would still be at work and he needed to take a long hot shower before he could think about what had happened today.

Nick unlocked the door to their apartment and tossed his keys, wallet and security badge on the table by the door. He loosened his tie and continued to let his clothes fall to the floor as he made his way to the shower. He closed the door behind him and put his I phone on the docking station and hit play on the I-pod before adjusting the water and stepping inside. He leaned his head on the wall as the water coursed down his back and did its job of loosening his muscles. He raised his face to the water and savored the feel of the water easing the tension from his overworked muscles. He could all but feel the day being rinsed away and flowing down the drain. He let his mind begin to wander.

Hannah Roberts, if she was eight in 1993 then she was a year younger than he was now. He began to do the math that meant that her dad died the same year as his family almost down to the same day. He found that odd but intriguing what were the odds?

He couldn’t get the image of her face out of his mind, those enchanting eyes that seemed to look right into his soul. He knew it was unethical but he needed to find her and see that things had gotten better for her. He knew Zach would be able to help him with the computer search on her when he arrived home. Zach was like a computer god if it was on the web then he could find it. He knew he needed to see what the story was with her father as well. He turned the water off as it began to grow cold. He climbed out of the shower and grabbed a towel. He finished up rather quickly and headed to his room. He rummaged through the closet and found an old worn pair of grey sweats and a sweatshirt. He pulled them on as he wondered where Hannah might be and if she would even remember him, she had been devastated by her father’s death and it had been seventeen years what were the odds of her remembering him at all?


On the other side of town Hannah Roberts lay in her bed dreaming of a man with beautiful sandy brown hair, liquid blue eyes that made her feel as if she were looking at the sky on a clear perfect day and a smile so radiant she had to shade her eyes to look at him. She laughed and danced underneath a clear sky twinkling with stars shimmering off the waves lapping at her feet. She snuggled into her pillow as she dreamed of his strong embrace and the warmth of his hand as it grazed her skin. She moaned as she waited for his lips to touch hers and claim her as his own, she waited for it but all she got was the blaring of her alarm clock. She groaned as she hit the off button and pulled her legs out from under the covers.

She wondered what it would feel like to meet this man in her dreams to feel his embrace, to feel safe with him. She ached to find someone like him that would love her and make all her pain go away. She would give up everything for one day with someone like that someone who could chase away all her demons and make her forget why she was this way in the first place. She knew these mind games were not helping her but she felt so safe in her dream world if only it was real. She had no idea why these dreams plagued her but she knew it was real and not her imagination. She was starting to believe maybe she was falling in love with some dream man who didn’t even exist. She knew she was completely psycho falling for some dream man but this dream was so much better than any reality she had ever known. She shook her head no as she thought of it and she knew that Nick was too real, too alive in her mind to be just a dream. Wait did she just call him Nick? She hadn’t thought about him in over seventeen years. Nick had been her knight in shining armor for a shy, scared of the world, lost little girl. Nick had been her imaginary friend when she had needed to hide from the real world. When things gotten too hard he had been there to help her. She could still remember seeing him for the first time at her dad’s funeral. She knew it was the imagination of a heartbroken little girl because he only seemed to show up when something bad happened. She wondered why she had given her dream man the same name. She was afraid she really was going crazy.

She was a twenty-five year old woman who was still painfully shy and terrified of the world outside her bedroom window. She berated herself, ‘Why am I still clinging to this imaginary friend?’

As Hannah sat on her bed thinking about her life she realized she had set herself up to fail. All of her life she had compared everyone every man, every relationship to someone who only existed in her delusional mind. How could any real man meet her expectations? She had compared them all to a man of her own making and design, to be perfect in every way or to her dead father and of course no one would ever be able to compare to either one of them. She feared that she had done this to ensure that no one got too close so she wouldn’t have to admit how broken she really was. She knew she needed serious help. She reached for the phone and dialed a number she had swore she would never use again.

She began to tap her foot restlessly as the phone seemed to ring forever. She finally heard the machine pick up.

“Hey it’s Maddie, I’m not here, wait for the beep, you know what do.”

“Hey Mad, it’s me sorry I missed you call……… “

“Hannah, oh my is it really you?”

Hannah smiled as she heard her best friend gushing on the other end of the phone.

“Yeah Mad it’s me, so how are you?”

“Oh you know settling in the new apartment and getting my practice off the ground.”

Hannah sighed her practice was why she was calling. She took a deep breath and plunged into the deep dark waters of the truth, “Well that is sort of why I am calling. I know I swore I would never go to a shrink but Mad, I think I need help.”

Hannah could hear Madeline’s sharp intake of breath, “Are you saying you want to talk about the things going on in your life?”

“Mad, I need to talk about how drastically my life changed when my dad died. I think I am ready and I really need your help,”

“Oh honey I’ve always been here for you as your friend and I want to help you, just name the time and place.”

Hannah let out the breath she had unknowingly been holding. Madeline had been her best friend her whole life and she was grateful to have her here.

“Sounds good Mad, meet me at my place in a couple of hours?”

“You got it and Hannah I am so glad you called.”

Hannah laughed for the first time in ages, “Me too, see you soon.”

Hannah hung up the phone and wondered what Maddie would think of her after all these years. She could almost see her face when she heard how she was in love with a dream that had the same name as her imaginary friend from 1993.
Chapter Two Alot Like Love

CHAPTER TWO
A lot Like Love

Nick was fast asleep on the couch when Zach walked in the door. He tossed his keys on the table and threw his jacket on the back of the couch before he jumped over the back landing on Nick’s backside.

“Rise and shine sunshine,”

Zach playfully rubbed Nick’s hair while bouncing up and down. Nick’s eyes popped open and he shifted to the left leaving Zach on the floor.

“Gees Zach do you always have to be so loud?”

“Good morning grump.”

Nick looked at him as if he wanted to kill him.