Chapter 18

She was adorable, Malachi had to admit that much, she was absolutely the cutest little thing, and the bigger she got with his grandchild, the cuter she was! She was everything Elijah's mother had never been it seemed, she cared about everyone, was funny, and sweet.

It seemed that having a grandchild was more then Holly could bear, she left one night, just like that, picked a fight with him and announced she had enough, packed up and was out of their life for good.  Malachi received the divorce papers a few weeks later, and happily signed them, she never contacted any of them again.

 He wasn't sorry, in fact he was pretty damn sure they were all better off without her.  Still watching his new daughter-in-law waddle around he wondered why that couldn't have been him, why his wife couldn't have been like that.

They brought home their new son, Blake, not to shouts of victory, but somber silence.  The delivery hadn't gone as planned and he had been delivered by c-section, it was then the doctors found the masses on Blair's ovaries.  They had removed the ovaries there on the table and sent the growths off for testing.  The diagnosis was grim.  The doctor told them Blair didn't have long.

 As she walked into the nursery to lay her son down he watched her, and something inside him couldn't believe it, nothing about her looked like a dying woman.  He wasn't going to lose his soul mate so soon after starting their life together.

Blake wasn't even four months old when he lost his mother, she had went peacefully in her sleep, and even in death she had looked so much like the angel both Elijah and Malachi would always believe she was.  Elijah wanted to scream at her as she lay in the coffin to get up and care for her baby, it couldn't be this way, she couldn't leave him alone, she was his happy ending!  She didn't get up and in the end she joined his grandfather and grandmother in their family Mausoleum, and he became a single father overnight.

He didn't deal with her loss well, instead he buried himself in his books, barely coming up for food or sleep, barely even noticing his son growing up without him.  He never left the house, and rarely spoke to anyone.  He slept alone, ate alone, surrounded by family and still lonely.  Malachi didn't know what to do to help him, he couldn't fathom a way out of the hole his son had sunk into.

Age was creeping up on Malachi and he finally had to admit that he just didn't have the energy to raise his active grandson alone anymore, he decided that it was time to hire a live-in Nanny. He interviewed  the applicants himself to make sure he chose the perfect match for Blake, in the end he was certain he had.

"Will you kindly put that blasted instrument up! I am trying to work here!"  She had been playing and singing that stupid guitar for over an hour and he had enough, if he had to hear her sing the wheels on the bus one more time he was going to choke the living hell out of the girl!  "What in Blasts name are you doing here? Who the hell are you?"

The girl put the guitar down and looked at Elijah with a smile.  " Well you're a right fine one aren't you Mr. St. John, I've been working here now for over a week, and you never even noticed!  I'm your son's Nanny, my names Paris, a man should know who is taking care of his son, don't you think?  You're father hired me."

"A nanny? Why in hell's name do we need a nanny? And what kind of name is Paris?"  Elijah was furious, how could his father hand over the care of Blake to a stranger without even telling him! "It seems that your father is feeling a bit worn down from trying to keep up with Blake, and it's no wonder, the boy has more energy then a hive of bees. Now if his father, that would be you ,correct Mr. St. John? If his father wasn't so busy then perhaps he would have the energy for keeping up with his son. As for my name, well it's the kind of name parents give their daughter, when she was conceived in the city of Love."

Elijah's blood was boiling, his face flushed red at the innuendo that he wasn't Blake's father, " You know I'm his father, so you can just stop with that nonsense now!  I do help, it's just a bit frantic right now, trying to meet my newest deadline for the book I'm writing, but once that's done then I will have time."

The girl smiled, she couldn't be laughing at him! "I will hold you to that promise Mr. St. John, now when is your deadline?"   The nerve she had, " Two weeks, the deadline is in two weeks!"  he was seriously thinking he would like to throttle the girl right there, " Very good, maybe we can take a trip to the park to celebrate your completion of the book on time, I think Blake would like that very much!

It's a date then Saturday, in two weeks, we will all have a wonderful picnic in the park."  With that she turned around, lifting Blake from the floor, and headed towards the kitchen.  Elijah was left scratching his head, how did she manage to do that?