“We have the money that got you into all that trouble with the NCAA. Ms. Dixon said to go ahead and move it into the general funds, and we can spend it now.”
“He’s confident that between his fundraising and the grants, he can pay his salary and help the beneficiaries of the two charities,” Scarlet said.
“Do you plan to get a job when you move?” I asked Dad.
“He’s going to take some time off before he goes looking for work,” Mom answered for him.
They must have discussed this before because Dad had a sour look on his face.
“Happy wife means a happy life,” Uncle John said to get in the middle of it.
I chuckled because I imagined Greg, Phil, and I giving each other shots like that when we were their age.
“See? They never grow up,” Grandma Dawson pointed out.
Neither Uncle John nor my dad was amused by their mother.
“What about you and your mayoral duties?” I asked my grandmother.
“Since the mayor has to live within the city limits, the city will have to have a special election to replace Mayor Duke,” Grandma Dawson informed me.
That made sense.
“Do you plan to do anything once you move?” I asked.
That had everyone’s attention. Apparently, my grandmother was keeping her plans close to her vest and hadn’t shared them with her family.
“Since you’re my favorite, I’ll tell you,” she said.
We waited.
“I didn’t say I would tell the rest of you,” Grandma Dawson said.
Suddenly, I knew what Pam felt like when I told her she was my favorite. I stuck my tongue out at my uncle and dad.
“Behave,” Grandma Dawson admonished me.
If I owned a beach house, I would bet the whole property that as soon as my grandmother told me her plans, those two would be working me for details.
“Now that this part of the business meeting is over, let’s talk about moving,” Dad said.
There was another part?
“I talked to Fritz, and Manaia will move into the security apartment over the garage,” Dad continued.
“Does that mean I won’t have to have security when I go to college?” I asked.
“They’ll set up security cameras in your dorm room, and you’ll have to wear a bodycam of some sort. The feeds will be monitored at Fritz’s main office periodically, and you’ll have your panic button on your phone. He thinks that should be enough,” Dad said.
“Good. I’m starting to hate having to have someone with me all the time,” I admitted.
“I don’t blame you,” Uncle John said.
Mom gave my uncle a look.
“What?” Uncle John asked. “Tell her, Rob. Would you want to have security tailing you while you were in college?”
“We’re not going there,” Dad said.
Before my mom could quiz my dad about what Uncle John was talking about, my dad plowed forward.
“We’ve decided we need someone to help out at the new house. Initially, we were looking for a person like Melanie to come in and cook and clean. We reached out to someone, and they suggested hiring their husband too. They would stay in the empty apartment over the garage next to yours and your grandmother’s,” Dad said.
This wasn’t an ordinary garage by any stretch. You could park eight cars in the front, and then around the back, there was room to park eight more. Upstairs were four shotgun-style one-bedroom apartments that were each 20 feet by 40 feet. The kicker was that on the roof, they put a tennis court.
When Cindy was working with her colleagues on the design, she’d asked me what I thought was missing. I jokingly said a tennis court. She surprised me with her creative use of space.
“Who do you know out there? Did Lexi find someone?” I asked.
“Rosy, Rita’s cook,” Mom shared.
“Rita’s going to kill me,” I worried.
“Actually, she’s good. Halle bought a house and is moving out. Trip is always at the beach house, so Rita didn’t really need Rosy anymore. The bonus is that with Rosy and her husband living on site, it will cut down their commute time,” Mom said.
Before I could ask any more questions, Megan stuck her head in the door.
“Your next meeting is here.”
◊◊◊
Chapter 33 – Next Stop, The Twilight Zone Friday May 12
Grace Davenport walked in. She was Brook’s grandmother and the woman who’d bought a controlling interest in my California-based businesses. Along with her were Caryn Buckley, my former COO; Kent Crain, the senior manager of my old management company in LA; and Bev Mass, the previous State’s Attorney for Cook County.
I got up and greeted them all.
“I didn’t expect to see you all here,” I said.
“We had a board meeting last week, and I wanted to fill you in on what’s been happening,” Grace said, taking charge of the meeting.
“Still, I’m only a minority stockholder. I wouldn’t expect you to fly here to talk to me,” I said and then hurried up and added, “I am, of course, happy to see you all.”
“Nice save,” Caryn said.
Fortunately, Grace was in business mode and ignored my nearly incoherent ramblings. Grace Davenport was someone that you traveled to meet, not the other way around. Her presence had me a little flustered. It was one thing for her to come here when her daughter and granddaughter lived here; it gave her an excuse to visit them. Since they had moved to Cincinnati, that meant she had come here to see me.
“The insurance company you were in negotiations with didn’t work out. We did some research and found they lacked the bandwidth to handle all the potential needs of our projected clients. We close on the partnership with the new insurance company at the end of the month,” Grace shared.
“That’s good, right?” I asked.
“Yes, it is, David,” Kent answered.
Grace had just shown me that I really did need her. When I’d sold most of my company to her, I’d wondered if we were onto something and if it wouldn’t be more profitable to go it alone. She’d pointed out at the time that we didn’t have the experience to handle the growth we’d be experiencing. We’d either botch our expansion, or someone with the resources to crush us would steal our idea.
Grace had said she researched what our potential insurance needs might be, and the company we’d planned to partner with couldn’t handle them all. That told me several things. We either didn’t think everything through or didn’t really know who our potential clients were. I needed to get to school in a hurry and start learning this stuff because I felt I’d missed a big one there. The corollary was that it was only the tip of the iceberg of what I didn’t know.
“We also voted on a new name. Our company will be called Holistic Wealth Management.”
“It tested very well with our focus groups,” Caryn said.
“Okay, where are we in terms of expansion?” I asked.
“That’s my next topic,” Grace said. “We are opening offices in Chicago and Cincinnati. Bev will oversee the one in Chicago since they are already in place with management. Ava will take over the one in Cincinnati with my assistance until she’s able to step into the role on her own. Caryn will run the LA office. New York will be next, once we get the two new ones up and running,” Grace said.
“Why those two places? Is it just convenient because you’ve got people in place who can be in charge?” I asked.
“Well, not exactly. Ava won’t be in charge initially; she’ll be working with Grace while Grace trains her to take over at some point,” Caryn answered.
“The locations are based on the leads you gave us,” Grace said. “We’ve been able to sign up enough clients to get the Chicago office off the ground, and the one in LA has been growing like crazy. Of course, I have a lot of people in Cincinnati we can contact, so that was a given.”
I remembered Grace asking for me to help them sell the company with my contacts. At the time, I’d been hesitant to trade on my relationship with people to get them to trust us with their money.