I panicked.”

He stretched his left hand across the table toward my coffee cup.

I moved my hands down into my lap and kept them completely still.

“I’m paying off the property lien,” he said.

“Every last penny.”

“A five-thousand-dollar check doesn’t clear a huge bank loan,” I said.

“The hardware store landed a bulk order from the new housing development out on highway nine,” he said.

“That five thousand is only the first installment.