Heather Cain

☀(Andrea Ferrell) is a deaf girl whom Matt sees at the airport (in "Dangerous Liaisons, Part 1") he goes over to her house and meets her and her mother, Donna (Meg Wittner) on their first date the next night, Heather runs out of the party after being teased. In "Dangerous Liaisons, Part 2", Eric "lures" Matt to a cafe where deaf people work and eat. Matt meets Heather there. They eventually apologize and say they want to get to know each other. In Season Two, she goes away to school in Philadelphia and breaks up with Matt. In season three, she returns and says she's getting married but in the finale she runs off with Matt on her wedding day after learning that her own fiance cheated on her.

In season four, she transfers to Crawford College and sees that Matt is in a relationship with Shana Sullivan.

In the Season Finale of Season Four, she tells Matt she still loves him and he breaks up with Shana. Matt and Heather decide to elope but she stands him up at the altar. He refuses to ask again. She looks to break up with him and uses his mother to deliver the message. She tells him she wanted to get back together, not get married.

Heather marries another man but gets divorced and is planning on moving back in with her mother. Matt is having problems with Sarah and considers divorcing her to come back with Heather. Heather doesn't want him to as she knows how it feels when there's "another woman". Matt realizes he loves his wife Sarah more and will not get back together with her. She tearfully says "good-bye" to him.

Trivia

 * Heather refers to Matt as "her first love".
 * Matt learned sign-language for her.
 * Although she has been fiercely loyal to her, she has not really returned such fidelity. For example, she seems to keep leaving for greener pastures but wanting to return to him when she's in dire straits. It's Matt who keeps trying to save her. Willing to leave other things in his life, including other girlfriends.
 * Matt's real problem is he keeps trying to rescue her rather than anything else. Later on in life, they have a habit of trying to fall back into each other's arms when everything in their current status isn't going so well.