Her heart swelled from his compliment. “Thank you.” For more reasons than she cared to admit, doing right by this manmattered.
Though he smiled, his eyes did not. “I need to borrow Larry for amoment.”
Ignoring his boss, Larry ambled toward Millie. “Hey, Mill, can you remove mymakeup?”
“Now,” Crockettsaid.
Anger flashed in Larry’s eyes. “Sure thing.” He and Crockett stepped out of thelab.
What’s that allabout?
“I caught Larry’s comment about products ‘flying’,” Alexandra whispered to Decker. “Even though he could have meant ‘out the door’, I’ll work with the editor to cut that. Noworries.”
“Thank you.” The tightness around his eyes faded. “I’m headed downstairs for coffee. Can I get youanything?”
“No, thanks.” She tossed a nod toward the cloaked tables. “We won’tpeek.”
“I trust you,” Deckersaid.
Maybe she’d cracked Decker’s guarded exterior. Millie and Tom joined Decker, leaving her and Gavin alone in the lab. With his full attention on Alexandra, Gavinchuckled.
Up went her eyebrows. “What?”
“You and Wilde have it baaaad for each other. And I meanbad.”
She crossed her arms. “Oh, that’s ridiculous. I do not. He doesn’t, either. I’m a professional. We have a job to do. Why would you even say that? I’m insulted, Gavin. I mean,really!”
He burst out laughing. “You dizzy from that speech? I’ve known you for a long time, Reed, and I have never—and I mean,never—seen you blush. I can’t wait to tell Bruce. It was the damn cutestthing.”
She shoved her finger in his face. “I. Do. Not. Have. A. Thing. For. That.Man.”
He raised his hands. “Whatever you say,doll.”
Leaning against the table, she whispered, “Thatobvious?”
Gavin cleared his throat and Alexandra flicked her gaze to the swinging door as Crockett powered into the room.I do have it bad forhim.
After makeup, Crockett took the hot seat. Since he’d returned from speaking with Larry Berry, something was off. Nothing he said, just a general feeling she had. Brushing it aside, Alexandra began with general questions about the business he’d built from the groundup.
“All of our surveillance equipment is designed to enhance operations for our armed forces, law enforcement, and first responders,” heexplained.
Alexandra asked about the items on the lab table and Crockett lifted a helmet equipped with night vision goggles. “This is an example of a current challenge we’ve been tasked to improve. Military, law enforcement and first responders rely on night vision goggles or NVGs. The infrared light gives them a clear advantage in the dark, but the challenge centers on the weight the goggles add to the helmet.” He offered to place the helmet onAlexandra.
Gavin panned the camera to Alexandra as Crockett lowered the helmet onto her head. “It’s heavy and the weight isn’t distributed evenly,” shesaid.
“Within as little as an hour, neck muscles strain against the weight of the goggles.” Crockett took the helmet from her and set it back on the lab table, then lifted one of their two prototype designs so Gavin could get a close up. “We’ve been focused on reworking the goggles. These are much lighter, which means less neck strain. Right now, they’re cost prohibitive. The goal is maintaining integrity without scrimping on quality. All while staying within the client’sbudget.”
After Alexandra wrapped up her questions on the NVGs, Crockett rounded the table for a show-and-tell about mini-drones.
“Wilde Innovations holds a patent for one of the first initial military-grade mini-drones,” he said. “But this little flyer took hundreds of iterations until we got it right.” He added, “In the beginning, we crashed more than welanded.”
His pride for his team was evident and he credited others for his successes. He was driven, intelligent and direct. But he was humble and as motivated today as he had been when he first began. When she asked him a few questions about his career in the early years, he became moreintrospective.
“Everyone on the team, especially those who’ve been with me since inception, put blood, sweat and tears into those early projects. I’ve grown along with my business and believe that work-life balance is key to our success. Though I rarely follow my own soundadvice.”
Despite the fact that she’d interviewed famous, wealthy celebrities and lots of successful business magnates in her career, this interview mattered the most. Not because of her personal feelings, but because ofhis.
The driving force behind his organization centered on someone he loved. If the interview helped another family or somehow eased his pain, she would consider it asuccess.
