By a Thread Read Online Free

and collapsed onto the bed, heels still on her feet.
    Patrick with his military precision, his shaved head, and his cold demeanor had moved her through the events of the day. Stella didn’t understand why he would, he didn’t know her at all. Cooper crawled into Stella’s bed at the rental house and laid his head right next to hers on the pillow, his big paw resting on her arm. Stella closed her eyes, but didn’t sleep. She had lived through the day. Even though she thought at least a million times she was going to die, she was still breathing. She didn’t know what came after this. Where would she go? She had no home. Jamie had been her home .

Chapter Four
    Stella walked with Cooper down the stairs into the room she and Jamie shared for only one night. She slid down the wall, sat on the floor and glared at all his things... all the unlabelled boxes she would have to go through, all of his things. She sobbed again, even though she thought she was out of tears. Could she please just run out of fucking tears! She opened a box of Jamie’s. Stella pulled out his old college baseball jersey. Inhaling deeply, she smelled him. Clementines. Tearing off her clothes, she slipped it over her head and crawled into their bed. Sometime later she felt Cooper climb up on the platform bed and lay next to her.
    Stella only got out of her bed to use the bathroom, which wasn’t often since she didn’t drink anything all day. She heard footsteps coming down the stairs, but she didn’t look up.
    “Okay, I’m going to give you two more days of this shit before I take things into my own hands.” She felt something hit the pillow next to her bed. Patrick had thrown a protein bar and a bottle of water on her bed.
    Stella didn’t respond.

    Two days later, true to his promise, Patrick returned downstairs after work. Throwing the covers off Stella, he picked her up, legs flailing. In two steps he was in the bathroom, where he threw her in the bathtub. He turned on the water, full blast, soaking her, and finally forcing a reaction out of Stella.
    “Holy shit, Patrick,” she yelled as she put her hands up, attempting to block the water from her face. In less than thirty seconds she was soaked from head to toe, including Jamie’s baseball jersey.
    “You stink and you haven’t eaten in days. If you don’t get your ass upstairs right now and eat what I cooked for dinner I will call your fucking daddy. Is that how you want to be treated? Like a child who can’t take care of herself?” With that, Patrick turned and walked up the stairs.
    Stella was stunned, then pissed. She stomped up the stairs after him, soaking wet in nothing but Jamie’s white baseball jersey. When she got to the kitchen, she glared at Patrick and stomped over to the table, sitting down next to a guy she had never seen.
    “Well hello there, hot stuff,” the stranger said, looking over at Patrick. “I’m guessing this is our new roommate?”
    “Yep,” Patrick said, grabbing a towel and mopping up the water rolling off Stella’s body.
    “Hopefully you will attend all group dinners in a wet, white T-shirt.” The guy took in her appearance and raked his hand through his shaggy, dirty-blond hair that reached just past his ears. He pushed his tortoise-shell glasses up the bridge of his nose. Dressed in what appeared to be a white undershirt shirt and suit pants, it was clear he had just gotten home from work. His eyes were a warm chocolate brown and full of humor.
    “You know my fiancé just died, right?” Stella spouted at the stranger.
    “Um,” Billy Stevens looked down at his plate. “Yeah, sorry to hear about that.”
    “Whatever.”
    “What made you finally get out of your bed? It looks like Patrick threw you in the shower...”
    “And threatened to call my daddy,” she made air quotes to emphasize the word daddy.
    “Wow, Patrick, that’s pretty dirty.” Billy still looked amused.
    “Well, she can’t stay in her bed forever. She is supposed to