“What’s that?” I asked.

“Two thousand dollars,” Brad said.

“Take two grand, Amy, let the guys hunt, and we’ll call it square.”

The check was made out to me and signed in his crisp blue ink.

“Kurt paid you four,” I said.

Brad smiled and leaned back on the counter with his ankles crossed.

“Two thousand pays for your trouble, and two thousand pays for the work I put into building those tree stands all these years.”

“You knocked those stands together out of scrap plywood five years ago,” I said.