“She told me you and Nate bought the old Miller place on the courthouse steps.”

“We got the deed,” I said, leaning against the counter rail.

“Did the forty-thousand-dollar cashier’s check cover the whole bid?” Patty asked, leaning closer over the glass case.

“No,” I said.

“The hammer came down at forty-one thousand five hundred.

I had to pull fifteen hundred dollars out of my purse right there at the counter.”

Patty let out a short, quiet breath.

“Fifteen hundred in cash?”