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The ground was too uneven, too treacherous, for a lifetime of one-on-one. Maybe she was too much of a threat. Or perhaps being around her all the time just got old.
Which was fine by her. She’d already tried love and marriage and had no intention of taking those risks again. The one and only time she’d ever come close to losing her grasp on reality had been when she’d been emotionally involved with a man.
Cassie didn’t have anything to worry about.
Matt Sheffield couldn’t hurt her. Because he wouldn’t get the chance.
CHAPTER FIVE
“MR. SHEFFIELD, may I speak with you for a moment?”
Turning from the lighting board, Matt nodded. “Sure, Sophie, what’s up? Another problem with Daniel?”
Matt had assigned him to a couple of shows over the semester, in a couple of different capacities. The kid might love the theater, might want to be a techie more than anything else in life, but he just didn’t get the technical stuff.
“No.”
It was the first week of December. Thanksgiving had came and gone, and they were facing a lull before the end-of-semester holiday shows. The only shows they had right now were a couple of concerts at the end of the week—the jazz band and a choral concert. While neither of those took more than basic lighting, the sound requirements would pose a challenge.
“Then what?” Matt asked. It was warm in the theater, yet Sophie was all bundled up in a turtleneck shirt with a bulky sweater over top.
“I’m just trying to figure out what I should do next semester,” she said. She seemed even more distracted than she’d been over the past month, almost as though she was having trouble concentrating.
“I’d think that must be pretty clear at this point,” Matt said, studying her. He wasn’t going to get involved. He wasn’t. But damn, the girl didn’t look good. Her face was far too drawn. He wondered if, under those bulky clothes, the rest of her was as skinny. “You’ve only got another three semesters before you graduate, and you know what courses you need.”
“I know.” She nodded, sinking down on the couch along the wall. The same one Matt had shared with Phyllis Langford.
Phyllis. A day hadn’t gone by that he hadn’t thought of her. The mother of his child.
He should be doing something. But there was nothing he could do—nothing was the one thing Phyllis had asked of him. He was equally responsible for her predicament, though, and she was carrying all the load. And not just physically.
Hitting the appropriate keys to save the work he’d been doing, Matt waited for Sophie to say whatever she’d come to say.
“I’m thinking about quitting school.”
He stopped, turned slowly to face her, leaning back against the worktable as he carefully measured his response.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Matt bit back a word he shouldn’t say in front of a student. “If you have no good reason to quit, then why not stay in school?” he asked, instead.
“I’m just so confused.”
“Have you talked to anyone about it?” Get her to a counselor, his mind was screaming. It was what he should’ve done with Shelley all those years ago. Law officials had told him so. His lawyer had told him so. The school principal had told him—
“I’m talking to you,” she said.
Her eyes were huge when she looked up at him. Matt’s stomach tensed. He couldn’t do this. Didn’t do this.
“I teach lighting design,” he muttered.
“You’re the only person who’s given a damn about me in the two years I’ve been at Montford.”
“It may seem that way,” he said slowly, panic shooting through him as he quickly relived the past two and a half years with his star pupil. Had he ever, unwittingly, done anything to give her any indication that he regarded her as more than a student? “But I’m sure that there are other people here who care about you.”
“You make me believe I’m worth something.”
