Chapter Twenty
While a dejected Valencia boarded Jada’s personal Phenom 300 for the flight back to New York, Jake was landing Black’s Cessna at Westchester County airport after a successful business trip in Port Saint Lucie.
Now that the acquisition team had completed their title searches, appraisal maps, and legal descriptions for the properties, the board of directors gave their approval to go with the Port Saint Lucie project, instead of the property that they were looking at in Naples. This trip marked the close of the negotiations with the property owners. The deal was done, and it was time for the acquisition team to celebrate.
But not Black. As soon as the meeting was over, he rushed to the airport for Jake to fly him back to New York. When the plane taxied into the hanger, Black saw that Shy was there waiting for him. As soon as the door was opened, he rushed quickly into her arms and kissed her.
“I'm glad that you’re home,” Shy said as he held her.
“I’m glad to be here.” He kissed her on the forehead, and then he turned to Chuck. “How are you, Chuck.”
“I’m good, boss,” he said, and opened the door for Shy to get in.
“Take me to Carla,” Black said as he got in.
“On our way,” he said and closed the door.
“How was the meeting?” she asked quickly before he was able to dive into her issue. She felt that it was important to be supportive of him and what he was doing with the business, because she was instrumental in him making that decision.
“Everything went fine. We are now the proud owners of nine point six eight acres of land off Melaleuca Boulevard.”
Shy kissed him on the cheek. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“I know how much this project means to you and how much work you put into it,” she kissed him again, on the lips this time. “So, I’m happy for you. I know that Deanna and Jaila are excited.”
“They are. They worked just as hard, if not harder than I did. It was their first big project too.”
“How much longer will they be down there?”
“Another week or so, I guess.”
“Are you going back down there?”
“No need now. The deal is done. And you, once again, have my undivided attention.”
“Me, and whatever it is that Martin has going on,” Shy said, and Black dropped his head.
“You know I forgot about that, right? I’ve got so much going on with you and the business that I completely forgot about it.”
“Well Martin’s people haven’t. Since you won’t take their calls, they’ve called me twice this week to ask if you would be back in time. So, what’s so important that you have to be there?”
“Because this is not just another cancer awareness fundraiser.”
“It’s not.”
“No. Martin plans to announce that he’s running for the U.S. Senate. Or to be more specific, he’s forming an exploratory committee.”
The term allowed him to begin raising and spending money on limited campaign activities like polling and outreach. The other advantage was that exploratory committees aren’t immediately required to file reports with the Federal Election Commission. Once Martin began to engage in any campaign-type activities, he became an official candidate and must register with the FEC and begin filing regular financial reports on what was raised and spent while his campaign was testing the waters for the run.
“He’s running?” Shy laughed.
“Right. That whole exploratory thing is just so he can save face if either the money doesn’t roll in—”
“Which I believe is part of your job.”
“It is.”