After the mishap during the first Santa Sleigh flight test, I decided to keep a closer eye on Fallon.
Only hours later, I received new code for the wind shear software. It came from Clea. My team was great. We worked well together. But usually not this fast.
I stayed late to read through the document. It had only been two days that Fallon had worked for me--the team. I wasn't new at this. From his application and the coding I'd received yesterday and this morning I'd quickly picked up on signature spins, shortcuts and edit marks. It was his work. But there was no credit.
Instinct told me he'd already had all of these fixes in his mind right out there on the tarmac. But he'd been unable to communicate it. Blanked out. Was it me?
I didn't want my presence to intimidate anyone's best efforts. At the same time, we needed to learn to work together. I was sure I'd hidden my surprising attraction to him. That couldn't have been a factor. I hoped.
The best thing to be done was to stay away and let him work at his own pace with Clea and Drake overseeing the progress.But I also needed to know my workers and what was going on with them in order to make things run smoother. This was a stressful job. As the boss, it was my duty to alleviate pressure whenever I could while still getting the best results out of my team.
At lunch, I called Fallon to my office. I had food delivered. I knew he'd be hungry.
About five minutes after noon, he came walking in, shoulders forward, eyes making nervous glances about the room. My attraction to him immediately returned but I managed to hold it inward.
“Come on in.” I gestured toward my desk where I'd set up two chairs. “I got subs. I hope that's okay.”
His voice came out soft and shaky. “We're having lunch?”
“We need to talk. And it's lunchtime. I certainly wasn't going to eat in front of you without you having anything.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You don't have to call me sir. The name’s Keir.”
“Yes, s—Keir.”
He sat with seeming discomfort. Did I make him nervous? I needed to nip that in the bud right away. I rattled the paper while unwrapping my sub and behaved as if everything was normal and fine.
“No need to be nervous,” I said. “I rarely have lunch alone. I like to talk shop with anyone in listening distance. You'll get used to that. Today I have a few questions for you.”
“What questions?”
“First off, I know this is only your third day. That means everything is on a trial basis but just fine. Just fine,” I repeated when I saw his eyes widened.
“I understand.” He spoke almost breathlessly. “What happened on the tarmac won't happen again. I promise. I spoke too soon.”
“All right. But you did seem to have an idea.”
He gulped, then stared his sandwich.
“Fallon?”
“Sometimes ideas come into my head and then fly right out again. I know better than to speak too soon. Like I said, it won't happen again.”
Something didn't ring true, but I had no choice but to believe him. “That's fine. Everyone works in different ways but we're a team and so we need to communicate. Now I know that about you. If it happens again you can just tell me.”
“Yes, s—Keir.”
“I did get corrections to the software in the early evening. That means you and/or others stayed late. I appreciate that.” Although I already knew the code had been written by him, I pretended otherwise.
“I can tell the team is very dedicated,” was his only reply.
“They are. I recognized some signatures within the new code, though.”
He touched the bread on top of his sandwich. He wouldn't look at me. “You—you did?”
“Yes. Yours.”
