“You’re right,” I said. “Sooner if I can talk her into it.”
“The end of the year is in three months,” Conrad said.
“Exactly.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Hey, how’s your dad?”
“Better,” I said, my stomach still tight. Dad still couldn’t talk properly. He had a long road of rehab ahead of him. But he listened when I talked. He seemed to light up when I came into the room, even when I said nothing about baseball. I felt like it was progress.
We settled into our seats; I was between Conrad on one side and Jamie on the other. Jamie gave me a massive pat on the back in congratulations for proposing to Ellie, and we talked wedding stuff for a minute until the lights dimmed.
Then every single one of us guys in our row shushed the room.
And after each speaker, our section gave off the most thunderous applause. None so loud, it turned out, as Conrad the non-husband clapping for Kit. At least until it was my turn.
When it was finally Ellie’s time to walk on stage, I waved my arm like a little kid. She knew where I was sitting. I just wanted her to know I was rooting for her.
She lifted up her hand to me as she got to the podium, a nervous smile darting across her face.
“That’s my girl.” I whispered to no one in particular. “Isn’t she gorgeous?”
“You are so embarrassing,” Conrad muttered to me.
“You’re as bad as our kids,” I whispered back.
Conrad glared at me, then realized he was proving me right and sat up straight.
Ellie cleared her throat.
“Hello everyone. I’m Ellie James.”
I couldn’t help myself, I whooped.
She blushed. Conrad sank down in his seat.
“This August,” Ellie continued, “my fiancé Sam became my kids’ full-time caregiver.”
I elbowed Conrad, whispering, “That’s me!”
Conrad shook his head.
“That’s when a funny thing happened.” She paused, the silence of the room a sign everyone was listening closely. “The moment I knew my kids were safe and cared for,” Ellie said, “When I knew dinner would be on the table when I got home; when we began sharing the duties and responsibilities of parenthood…I fell back in love with my trade.”
Ellie took a moment.
“Here at Heartbreaker, we spend a lot of time talking about making the workplace safe and welcoming for women. And that, of course, is our paramount goal. But something not enough people talk about is how welcoming women to trades actually starts at home.”
Ellie talked about how parents needed to encourage girls to grow up to be electricians, but schools and employers also needed to make it easy for them to have families if that’s the path they choose, without it hurting their careers.
“Over the past year, I felt guilty and ashamed that I no longer loved practicing a trade that had saved my life in the past. I blamed the work. But it took being well-supported at home to remember what I loved about it. The feeling of confidence when replacing dangerous systems in old buildings. Keeping the power on in a hospital so the medical staff can save lives. Even the simple joy of energizing a new build, with each switch and outlet working reliably and safely—that energized me. I lost those feelings because I was flat out with parenting at the same time as trying to practice. Now I’m not saying Heartbreaker can find you a man like Sam.” The room erupted into laughter, and I looked over at Conrad with a pointing a thumb at myself. He was going to give me an earful later, but he was fun to rile up.
“But Iamsaying we wanted to make it easy for working moms to have the same advantages as working dads. Which iswhy we’re so delighted to share with you the Heartbreaker Trades College Daycare and After School Program.”
The room cheered, but none so loud as me.
After the speeches and videos were played in the auditorium, the scholarships were announced. There were a ton of them. Then the women all cut the big red ribbon they’d set up at the front of the school. Finally, we migrated to the shop area, where a cocktail reception had been set up in the open area out back. Starting tomorrow, the space would host donation vehicles of all types for students to work on. But tonight, there were dozens of tables draped in white tablecloths, lanterns in the center of each.
Our table appeared to be the most chill of everyone at the gala, since the hard part was over. Everyone was here except Winona and Mitchell, who I was pretty sure had snuck off somewhere for some private celebrating. Which, fair—this was technically their building.
