“I was talking to my landscape supervisor this morning,” he said, jingling the coins faster.

“We are talking about a premium grade Kentucky bluegrass sod package.

We want to roll it out across your entire side yard, from the cedar line right up to your flower beds.”

He leaned against the wooden railing, gesturing toward the dry, patchy turf near the fence.

“It is a high-end turf upgrade, fully irrigated and fertilized,” he said.

“Normally, a job like that runs about three thousand dollars, but I am absorbing the entire cost as a gesture of goodwill.”

The offer sounded incredibly generous, almost enough to make me forget the blueprint Rachel had shown me the night before.