The first step...

I stood, following Abigail over to the counter. "Would you like some help? I may not be a whiz in the kitchen, but I can surely help with a cup of coffee."

I watched the girls walk away and glanced back at Mr. Frost. "So, what exactly do you teach, Mr. Frost?" It felt funny calling him that. Like he was an old man when I was sure he was the same age as I or a few years older. Either way.

"I'd love help, thank you." I gave her a smile, handing her a mug before going over to get the milk out of the fridge. "How does Mr. Frost like his coffee?"

I laughed, shaking my head. "Please, call me Jackson. I'm only Mr. Frost at school. Not even my Pops is Mr. Frost. And my wife is Bianca. I teach health and phys ed. I had gone to school to be a sports therapist, so the teaching gig kinda just fell into place when Bianca started working as a the drama teacher at East Salem High."

"Black. Definitely black." I laughed softly. "Me, I like mine with as much cream and as much sugar as possible. At home, I have a caramel drizzle I put in it. I don't really like coffee, I prefer a caramel macchiato, but that's why I sweeten up my coffee as much as possible." I giggled a little more. "Oh, an you can call him Jackson. Or Jackie. I call him Jackie." I giggled more, shaking my head. "No, you better not call him Jackie. I think I'm the only one he ever lets call him Jackie. And I'm Bianca. Jackie calls me Binx." I shook my head, tucking hair behind my ear. "Long story! We've been together since high school, and sometimes names just stick, even if they're not the best."

"I'll just call him Jackson. And I think I'll call you B. That has a nice ring to it." I smiled at her and brought everything over. "Oh, I also have this," I reached back in the fridge pulling out the chocolate syrup. "It's not caramel, but.." I shrugged my shoulders. "You can call Dante, Dante, or D. And you can call me Abby or Abigail. Whichever you like. You said you were a teacher? What do you teach?"

"Well if I can call you Jackson you can call me Dante." I smiled. "And I'm a doctor. Neurosurgeon actually and my wife is a nurse. It's how we met.." I laughed. "Not that I ever feel like a doctor. I still walk around feeling funny all the time. Like I'm strange in my own skin." I shook my head. "I think I wasn't meant for such steady work. I like moving. But adult life is all about making smart choices and being a doctor pays my bills." I shrugged. It was funny how at ease I felt talking to him. Like we had been friends forever.

"Must be nice to have that doctor income," I said, not feeling weird about talking about this at all. Usually, I hated talking about money and politics and religion with anyone, but for some reason, I felt like we could talk about anything. "Because I tell you, sometimes it's not so easy to pay the bills. Sure, both Bianca and I have steady incomes and next year she'll be getting tenure, so I guess I can't complain," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Things just aren't always easy."

I held my hands up. "Don't get me wrong," I said, quickly. "We have taken very good care of Davis. Both he and Mabel have always had the things they need and even some of the things they want. I don't know, I guess I just didn't really care for the way I was raised, you know, everything handed to me on a silver platter, money tossed around like it's nothing. And I guess that's why Binx and I have always seen eye to eye. Her father was a police officer and her mother was a stay at home mom, so she wasn't raised with a silver spoon in her mouth. We kinda just fit together, you know what I mean?"

"I teach drama. It's always been a passion of mine." I laughed, pouring the chocolate syrup into the coffee. "I actually wanted to run away to Hollywood when I was younger, but you know things happen in life, change our plans." I wasn't going to talk about my family, even though I'm sure she wouldn't mind, it's just not something I felt like talking about right now. "Oh, and I think I'll call you A." I said, pouring some sugar in the cup before picking up the milk.

"Honestly, Abby and I aren't like that at all. People think we are. You know, silver spoons and everything. But Abby's dad was a lawyer, and my dad was a businessman and my mom was a stay at home mom and both raised us with money but neither of us really care about it. We buy the kids new toys every few months, new clothes, but we don't much spoil them. Abby says she'd hate for them to turn out spoiled. Especially when her father always raised her to be the kind loving woman she is now, even with money in her back pocket. But I can totally understand how some people let money twist and turn them. Sometimes it makes them downright ugly."

"Good. I like that nickname." I said smiling, mixing my own coffee with some milk. I didn't much care for coffee but I wouldn't mind a glass. "I'm a nurse, but, it's not my true passion. Nope, that's music. And just like you, I thought about going to California, making it big, or hell, making it big on broadway, but dreams change and reality sets in and now I save other people's lives for a living. Which can be rewarding and exhausting at the same time. I think honestly as much as I hate that I lost time with Davis, I also can't hate Mary Beth for her mistake because I understand it."

I nodded, agreeing with him completely. "Yeah, it really can. I mean, my father's not some snooty nosed rich asshole or anything like that, but there are some of the men that he works with or associates with that greed is a driving factor for them. But what I'm saying is I was raised in a huge mansion, guards and you name it, but I just didn't want that life for my family, you know what I mean?" I shrugged my shoulders. "But it's not like I went to the far extreme and we live off the land." I laughed, hoping he understood where I was coming from.

I didn't know if I could let the nurse off the hook as easily as A seemed she was. But me, I held grudges, even if I didn't like to. Like the one I held against God. He had taken my family away from me, and I honestly believed that if there was a God, he wouldn't hurt people like he hurt me when he took them from me. "I really don't want anything to do with her," I said, placing the spoon down after stirring my coffee and picking up both my cup and Jackie's cup. "Should we rejoin the boys?"

"Yep." I walked over with B, setting my coffee down, giving Dante a kiss on the lips before sitting down next to him in the chair and taking a sip of my drink.

"I understand." I said laughing. "All too well actually. We had guards, and gates and all that crap too. It's suffocating." I glanced up at my wife, smiling as she sat down. "Your key for the guesthouse is on the banister near the front door. The door's unlocked. There's three bedrooms. A kitchen. Living room. And bathroom. And we stocked the fridge for you. So you're pretty much set if you need anything let us know."