Chapter 111

"Hey Guys! It's our second reunion by the croc car! Who painted that by the way? It's awesome!" cheered Kate.

"Bobby did." answered Grace. "Isn't it amazing? Kate, Russell told us you're expecting twins! Congratulations! I'm thrilled for you both." she added as she hugged Kate.

"It's great news, Kate. Really great. Congratulations," said Regan.

"Thanks, we are really excited to become parents. It's something we have wanted for a really long time." said Kate as she hugged her friends.

"So what are everyone's plans for the fair? Xander competes at about 2pm, and we should all be there if we can. This is a really big day for him," said Tess.

"We're taking Meggie and Katie to see the animals, but we will definitely be there for Xander at two. I'm sorry we can't stay longer and catch up right now, but my poor mother has to do the pie competition and I need to go get Meggie and Katie from her. We'll see you guys!" said Jodi as she left with Matt.

"I'm going to hang here for a bit, do another safety check on the car, then I'll catch up with Meg after the pie competition is done. We'll be there for Xander at two of course." answered Terry.

"I plan on buying my wife all of the junk food she can dream of, then since I'm such a romantic, win her a stuffed animal and steal a kiss by the ferris wheel. We'll be at the rodeo ring at 2pm, of course," said Russell.

"Well I was planning on escorting these two beautiful women around the fair, but if I'm lucky enough, I might just get one more beautiful date, what do you say Tess, you want to hang with us?" asked Dylan.

"Sure, thanks Dylan. I'd love to catch up with all of you anyway." replied Tess.

"You're the one doing me a favor. I mean we all know there is something very special about the McLeod women, and I've got three McLeod women as my dates today." Dylan patted himself on the back.

Regan was thankful Dylan was making a good effort to include Grace and Tess.

"Where should we head first?" asked Dylan.

"Bumper cars!" said Grace.

"I'll watch you guys do it, I don't like people crashing cars into me," said Tess.

To his credit, Dylan was an excellent date to his wife, sister-in-law and cousin-in-law.

"Shall we ride the ferris wheel next?" asked Regan "it's only a two seater, so we can go two and two."

"I'm game. I hate heights, but if I've got Grace with me, I reckon I can make it." said Tess.

"Yeah, let's go for it," said Grace.

Dylan and Regan got onto the first available car and Grace and Tess climbed into the next one.

"Tess, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Um, sure?" replied Tess.

"Since your divorce, have you felt lonely?"

"Oh! That is a personal question. The answer is yes, sometimes. I've been incredibly lucky to have so many great people around and Jodi really is incredible to me. We formed our own family with her and Matt and her girls and me and Claire. But, I've recently realized that at times, I was very lonely. Why? Is everything okay?" asked Tess.

"I left Gavin. I caught him cheating. I've filed for divorce, that's why I'm here alone. I thought you might be able to give me some guidance about how to get through how I'm feeling right now," said Grace.

Tess cautiously let go of the safety bar and gave her cousin a hug.

"I unfortunately do have an idea of how you might be feeling. Every relationship is different and every scenario is different, but the pain of a marriage ending is very harsh. The feeling of betrayal is real, the anger is real. The confusion of what to do next is real. I'm so sorry Grace," said Tess.

"I just told Regan and Dylan on the way here, and Stevie last night. I don't want to tell Jaz yet because this is her special romantic weekend and I don't want to ruin it with bad news. The truth is, I'm having a hard time dealing with it all," admitted Grace.

"Of course you are. A divorce can be pretty devastating, especially when someone cheated. Manual labor helped me," said Tess.

"What?"

"Digging fence posts, shearing sheep, herding cattle, splitting wood. Doing things like that to the point of exhaustion really helped me for a while. I really didn't sleep well. At first, it was weird being alone in a bed, and then it was the dark places my mind would go at night when I was alone. The physical work would exhaust my body and help me to sleep. It doesn't specifically help you deal with the emotion, although getting energy out helped me get some anger out too, but lack of sleep makes it so much harder to deal with everything else."

"You're right, I haven't slept well since I found out. It's been about a month," said Grace.

"Try doing lots of heavy work or exercising a ton. It'll help get you through. Everything will feel absolutely terrible for a while, but slowly, you'll get a new sense of normal. There will be moments when the clouds lift and you'll feel happy again. They'll be sparse at first, but gradually, they'll come more often, and eventually, the dark clouds only come back once in a while. I haven't shaken them completely yet, but most of the time, I'm fine," said Tess.

"I've had so many times that a man has hurt me. Every man I have ever loved has chosen someone else. Heath, Marcus. I thought I had finally found it with Gavin, but he hurt me the worst. I'm not sure I even want to try dating again ever. I think maybe I'm destined to be alone. I've started feeling that some people just don't get to live with their sweetheart happily ever after. I don't think true love is in the cards for me. I think maybe I'm going to just stop trying to find something I'll never get. Men just don't seem to love me back," said Grace

This struck bone with Tess.

"Avoiding romance was my policy for a very long time. It's safer." said Tess.

"How long did it take you to be ready to start dating again?" asked Grace.

"Honey, I'm a bad example. I'm an old cynic. You don't want to follow my lead on that." said Tess.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't date at all. My daughter finally had a heart to heart with me last week. She could see I was lonely when I didn't even realize it. She wanted me to start dating again."

"Stevie went on a first date a couple nights ago. She seems to really like the bloke. They were talking on the phone last night." said Grace.

"I know about Stevie's date. We actually carpooled into town together that night. I'm glad he called her. He had said he was going to call. Stevie thought the date had gone well."

"Tess, I'm sorry you're lonely, and thank you for the advice about manual labor. I hope you do start dating again. You deserve a storybook ending."

The ferris wheel ride was ending, and it was time to get off. Grace and Tess walked out of the basket and off the ride. Grace gave Tess a big hug. "Thank you Tess."

"Let us help you through it, Grace. You don't need to do this alone, you can't make it through alone, at least I couldn't," Tess replied.