checking up on me, Mom?”
“Maybe.”
“Matt and I went to Tortilla Flat for lunch.”
“Oh?”
“It wasn’t like that.” Phyllis eyed her black leather boots, deciding they complemented the beige hip-huggers she was wearing with her leopard blouse and black leather vest. She might not be wearing the slacks or top for long, but the boots would still fit in a couple of months, wouldn’t they?
“How was it, then?” Cassie asked. If she’d been trying for casual, she failed.
“He just thought we should get together once, share medical information, stuff like that.”
“Did he tell you anything about his family? About his life before Shelter Valley?”
“A little.”
“And?”
“I don’t think he’s the cold fish you think he is, Cass,” Phyllis said, sitting up. “He had a rough time growing up, and I’m pretty sure there’s been some serious stuff since then, but he’s a good man. Fair. Conscientious.”
Cassie pulled into the Parsons’s circular drive, parking the car behind three others already there.
“I’m not telling them today,” Phyllis said, looking at the beautiful home that belonged to her very first friends in Shelter Valley. “I’m still early in my term—I need a little more time.”
Cassie’s expression relaxed as she nodded. “About Matt Sheffield, you’re going to be okay, aren’t you?” she asked softly.
“You mean I’m not going to do something stupid like fall for him?”
“Okay, maybe.”
“Don’t worry,” Phyllis said, her stomach heaving again. “There’s no chance of that at all.”
“I’d just hate to see you get hurt.”
“I know,” Phyllis said, squeezing Cassie’s hand. “I don’t intend to.”
Phyllis knew that not every woman was meant to share her life with a man. She was one of those women. She could handle relationships with men as friends, but that was it.
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.
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