Cimarron Rose

“All right, Emily, one time,” he said finally. “This one night you may stay up late. But if you ask again, I’m warning you now the answer will be no.”

Katlyn looked at Emily, making no attempt to hide her smile. Emily stared back at her, unsmiling, but with a distinct sparkle in her beautiful eyes.

“Would you like to sit on my lap while I sing to you?” Katlyn asked her.

Emily responded by shoving closer to Case, laying her head against his chest so she could just peer at Katlyn from the corner of her eye.

Suppressing a smile, Katlyn began to sing a lullaby her mother’s old dresser had taught her, a gentle, soothing melody about a brave princess’s journey through a magical forest to find her prince.

With her attention focused on Emily, Case could watch Katlyn freely. His irritation with her ebbed as her voice spun out the lilting notes, bringing to vivid life knights in shining armor, fire-breathing dragons and tall castles. Case wasn’t given to flights of imagination. But when she sang like this, it seemed to him she changed the very texture of the air with her song, making it warmer and softer.

He realized suddenly how beautiful she was. The lamplight favored her ivory skin and wove fire into the dark auburn mass mantling her shoulders. Even Emily seemed entranced by the picture his songbird made, and his daughter was rarely captivated by anything.

Emily obviously missed having a mother. Case had known from the beginning he could never fill that place in his daughter’s life.

But he knew also he didn’t want Katlyn McLain filling it, either.

Katlyn or Penelope or whatever she called herself had secrets, of that he was certain. Just like Emily’s mother.

He’d been a fool then. But never again. He would never be so gullible as to allow either Emily or himself to be hurt by lies. Women were deceptive. That lesson he had only to learn once.

As Katlyn finished the last of her song, Case gathered Emily close and stood up.

“Thank you, Miss McLain,” he said, steeling himself against responding to Katlyn’s look of hurt confusion. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put Emily back to bed. Go ahead with your supper, I may be awhile.”

Katlyn barely had time to nod before Case whisked his daughter out of the dining room. As they rounded the doorway out of the room, Emily peered at her once over Case’s shoulder, her hand lifting in a small wave.

Returning the gesture, Katlyn forced a smile. Inside, though, a cold emptiness settled around her heart, quelling the warmth the three of them had shared when she sang. A familiar voice reminded her why.

You’re an outsider, Katie, you don’t belong here any more than anywhere else, and you never will.

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