The cedar deck smelled of fresh sealer drying in the two o’clock heat.

Ron stood at the charcoal grill with a pair of long metal tongs, poking at four pork chops over the flame.

“Paid the fence crew in cash on Tuesday,” Ron said to the yard in general.

“That creek money did two good things at once,” Judy said from her lawn chair.

Judy smoothed her yellow cotton blouse and looked across the lawn at Kim’s two sons kicking a plastic ball.

“It put Kim somewhere safe, and it got rid of that brush lot,” Judy said.