43. Epilogue That’s My Girl
Epilogue: That’s My Girl
SAM
TWO MONTHS LATER
Most people hate tuxes. Not me. I think they’re fucking dapper.
I adjusted my tie in the mirror, wanting to get it perfectly straight. Mostly, I loved looking good for Ellie. When she looked at me with that appreciative gaze—or you know, fuck-me eyes—I felt like the richest man in the world.
“You ready?” Ellie asked, leaning into the bathroom. She did a long sweep of my outfit in the mirror, her bottom lip pulling between her teeth in that hot, signature move of hers.
But it was her eyes that I was looking at now.
“There they are.” I grinned. Fuck, I loved this woman.
“There what are?”
“The fuck-me eyes. I was hoping for those more than the ‘he looks handsome’ eyes.”
She gaped, laughing. “Excuse me?”
“If you let me see what you’re wearing I’ll give them right back to you. Actually, I’ll give them to you now.” I leaned on the counter, meeting her eyes in the mirror. Then I waggled my brows.
Ellie threw back her head and laughed. “My love, those are not your fuck-me eyes.”
“What? Of course they are.”
Ellie came into the room then, and my jaw just about fell onto the floor. She was wearing an emerald-green gown thing that hugged every single curve. It dipped low in the front, too, giving me the world’s most delicious fucking view of the world’s most gorgeous fucking breasts.
“Those are your fuck-me eyes,” Ellie said.
“Okay, fine.” I pulled her toward me by the hips. “Good God, woman, you look almost as hot as you do in your work gear.”
“Almost?” she laughed as I nuzzled her neck, peppering her with a downward series of kisses.
“You know those photos are saved in my forever folder.”
I was talking about all the photos I had her take of her working, particularly the sneaky sexy ones when she was working alone. I would commit crimes if anything happened to those photos.
“Okay stop, we have to go,” Ellie said, gripping my arms. “The limo’s on its way. And I can’t get up on stage with a hickey!”
“I probably shouldn’t show up to the party with a boner, either.”
“Probably not.”
“All right,” I said, “I’m ready.” I followed her out to the front where we slipped on our shoes.
We could have walked to the opening gala for the Heartbreaker Trades College: it was only a few blocks away from our new place.
But I knew Ellie would be stressed out running around looking in boxes for everything she owned, which is why I’d happily accept the limo Winona had offered all the faculty and board members.
I’d dropped Henry off at Conrad’s new neighbor’s place earlier.
They’d moved in to Mrs. Oxford’s place, and had a fourteen-year-old daughter who loved babysitting.
We could have had Tommy babysit—he’d offered to look after his brother—but we knew he’d been meaning to see this art documentary at the movie theatre in Greenville.
That’s where his girlfriend lived. He’d bussed out there earlier, and would be coming back on his own before midnight.
He’d started bussing to school on his own at the end of the last school year, and Ellie had apologized to him for not being okay to try it from the beginning.
He got it though. He really did. He’d matured so much in the past few months.
When we pulled up to the college, I whistled. “This place is looking great.”
“The signboard just went up last night,” Ellie said. “I thought Winona was going to get an ulcer.”
Winona herself came out of the doors a moment later. “Look at you two!” she said, her eyes big and round as she took us in, holding hands like we couldn’t seem to not do when standing next to each other.
Winona, Cher, Sarah, and Kit still made the same face when they saw us, even though it had been nearly three months since we made it official with everyone. I didn’t mind. I ate it up, in fact, though I knew it made Ellie embarrassed.
“Okay,” Ellie said. “Are we all set?”
“Yes,” Winona said. “Cher and I will be speaking about the formation of the Heartbreaker Collective. Then Sarah will talk about the vision of the college. Kit will talk about the diversity of learning streams, and Ellie’s going to wrap us up with her talk about the daycare and working mothers.”
Ellie smiled, glancing over to me with a wink, and I just about popped all the buttons off my shirt.
“Everyone is to keep to a strict five-minute speaking time,” Cher said. “Then we’ll announce the first scholarships.”
“And after that,” Winona concluded, “we can finally relax and have a party!”
The women cheered. The doors behind them opened then and everyone’s respective partners came out.
With the exception of Conrad, who was there as Kit’s platonic plus one, since she and that doofus Chip had gotten back together this summer.
Thankfully, Kit had refused to go on the big fishing trip he always dragged her to at this time of year, so Conrad had stepped up.
“Sam!” Conrad said, looking relieved to see me—and alone, since Kit had gone over to admire Ellie’s dress.
“You all right?” I asked.
“I hate these things,” Conrad complained, pulling at his collar. “Also, no one else is here as a ‘platonic plus one’. Kit tricked me.”
I grinned. “Would you have come otherwise?”
“As a guest, sure. But we’re in this special husband’s section, and it’s awkward as fuck.”
“Sorry, man. Feel free to sit next to me. I’m not a husband.”
“Pshht. You will be before the year is out.”
It was true. I’d asked Ellie to marry me the day we signed the deed to our new house.
The house Ellie’s mom had sent me a photo of that night before the whole ordeal with Dad.
The exact house I’d told Ellie about with the white picket fence.
Fate was basically whacking me over the head with a two-by-four. So why bother waiting?
“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 I am saying we wanted to make it easy for working moms to have the same advantages as working dads. Which is why 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.