Read Yours Always for Free Online Page B

trying to get her to leave.  Now she’ll be on the rides for at least another hour.”
    “Would you mind getting those funnel cakes for us, Savannah?” Fletcher asks, passing me a bill before he shoves the wad back into his pocket.
    “No, not at all,” I answer, overjoyed to have an excuse to get away from the palpable tension.
    Though they aren’t loud, I can tell from their body language that the conversation isn’t lightening up any since my departure.  They’re still at it once I have the funnel cakes in hand, so I make my way to one of the picnic tables and slowly begin picking at the pastry.  It’s even better tasting than I remembered, and I allow myself to get lost in the sweet memory that accompanies it.
    “Daddy, can I have funnel cake every day?” I ask.  Powdered sugar dusts the entire front of my lemon yellow sun dress.
    “You could, but you’d have no teeth before long.  Look at all of that sugar.  I think you got more on you than in you.”  He playfully tugs at one of my pig tails.
    “I already lost four of them,” I say, smiling broadly to show the newly vacated spaces.
    “I know.  Don’t remind me.  You’re growing up way too fast.  I’ll blink, and the next thing I know, you’ll be graduating.”
    I giggle heartily.  “No way, Daddy.  I’m going to be your little girl forever.”
    He stoops down to my level.  “You won’t always be little, but you’ll always be my girl.”  He tweaks the tip of my nose and wraps me into his overly large arms as he showers me with kisses.  “Sugar kisses!”  I burst into peals of laughter.  His last kiss lands on my forehead.  “I know I’m gone a lot, but you know I love you right?”
    “Yep!” my tiny voice squeaks out.
    “How much do I love you?” he asks.
    My eyes roll around as I recite the poem he made up for me. “You love me more than crawfish stew.  You love me more than the roogarou.  You love me more than a mosquitoless night.  You’ll love me forever with all your might.”
    “That’s my girl!  What do you want to ride now?” he asks, tossing the empty paper plate into a nearby garbage can.
    “The Ferris wheel!” I shout.
    “Oh, really?  That looks awfully high to me.  You sure you want to ride that?”
    “Yes!  Yes!  I want to ride it, Daddy!”
    He chuckles.  “Alright, we’ll ride the Ferris wheel.”  A car stops in front of us, and the attendant helps us into our seat.  The wheel jerks mightily as it moves to load the next rider and my stomach begins to do nervous flips.  By the time the attendant loads four more carts, my heart is pounding.
    “Daddy, I don’t want to ride anymore.  I’m scared.” I dig my face into his side.
    “What are you scared of, sweetheart?”
    “It’s so high.  What if we fall?”
    “Daddy will never let you fall.”
    “You let me fall when you were teaching me to ride my bike and when you taught me to skate.”  He gently rubs my arm.
    “True, but those times were different.  Daddy will only let you fall if it’s to teach you a valuable lesson.  There’s a big difference between letting you get a scuffed knee so you’ll be able to ride with your friends and letting you splat off a Ferris wheel, right?”
    “Daddy!  That’s gross!” I say with a giggle.
    “You’ve got nothing to be scared of.  Daddy’s got you.  Look, I think I see our house from up here, but I’m not sure.  Look out that way the next time we come around, and you tell me what you think.”
    I became so busy searching for our house that I forgot to be scared.  Dad taught me to divert my attention when I became afraid, and that technique still gets me through many tough times.
    “Hey, you okay?” Fletcher asks, taking a seat on the bench across from me.
    “Yeah, I’m fine,” I answer, shaking off the last few remnants of the memory I’d recently been lost in.
    “I’m sorry for the way my sister acted.  She’s a bitter old hag sometimes.  I usually just