Outrage boiled up inside of her. “You owe me no debt. I looked at your knee because I wanted to. No strings.”
His mouth curved slightly. “Maybe that isn’t the debt.”
She felt the stupid color start to rise in her face. “There is no other debt.”
“I took a lot of your time once. And apparently missed a lot of cues because I was pretty damned self-centered. Trust me, you dodged a bullet—”
“I know I dodged a bullet,” Liv said from between her teeth. “I’m relieved, which is why there is no debt. Your payment to me was being too obtuse to realize that I was head over heels for you at that time.” Her mouth tightened briefly before she repeated slowly and distinctly, in order to get it into his male brain, “At. That. Time.”
He smiled again. A maddening ghost of a smile. “I’ve only got a couple hours to spare today. Are you coming or not?”
“No, I’m not coming.”
He shrugged and started for the tractor again. Liv fought the impulse to pull off her shoe and chuck it at his head. Instead, she headed back to the house. Out in the field, Tim puttered along on the big tractor, oblivious to the upheaval he was causing.
Although Matt didn’t seem that concerned. All of the upheaval appeared to be on her part, which seemed wrong.
Well, damn.
Behind her the usually cranky tractor started up first try, and a few seconds later, the engine roared as Matt put it into gear.
Matt Montoya on her ranch. What had Tim been thinking?
She was damned well going to find out at dinner and put an end to this Matt-the-helper nonsense. The thing that bothered her was the why. Why was he doing this? Shouldn’t he be roping or something? Why help Tim? Was it truly because she’d poured her guts out to him and he felt guilty? Well, if so, a better way to pay the debt would be to stay off the place. Away from her and away from Beckett.
Liv waited for all of half an hour before she walked the half mile out to where her father was working. He stopped the tractor when he saw her coming, turning off the engine as she strode across the field, his expression one of concern.
“Why is Matt Montoya stretching the fence?” she asked.
“It’s sagging.”
Liv kicked a clump of dirt. “You know what I mean.”
“He offered. I said yes.”
“Dad—”
“I felt for the kid, all right?”
“You...what?” Felt for the kid? Matt was no kid and why Tim would “feel” for him, she had no idea. Tim wasn’t a feely type of guy.
“He’s not in a good place,” Tim explained, sounding more like Andie than himself.
Oh, this was great. “So the answer is to let him stretch fence.”
“He offered.”
For a moment Liv thought her head might explode. She pressed the palms of both hands to her temples. Then she simply turned and started walking across the field.
She’d made it all of five yards when he put the tractor back into gear. So now she had two men running tractors, which was one man too many. Liv had had enough.
She pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and dialed her mother. If someone had told Liv that she would purposely put herself in the line of fire and get involved in Shae’s wedding preparations, she would have laughed, but right now it seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately, her mother wasn’t answering the phone.
Liv sucked it up and dialed Shae.
“Liv, what a surprise,” Shae said when she answered.
“Just checking in,” Liv said. “How’s it going?”
“Things are hectic. Very hectic. I got this great idea about using origami flowers instead of the real thing, but the time involved is crazy and hiring someone to do it is not going to be cheap.”
“How does the cost compare to real flowers?”
“A little less than the lilies,” Shae said. “But the origami would be so cool and since I’m wearing a simple column dress, the overall effect would be incredible.”
A simple column dress that cost more than Liv made in a month.
“Oh, and bad news,” Shae continued. “I ordered the bridesmaid dresses a week too late. The sale was no longer in effect, so they’re twenty percent more than expected.”
“It’s only money,” Liv said, hoping the irony in her words hit Shae square in the face.