Page 26 of Ten Kisses

"You're an old, married man now," Salem said. "I could take you any day."

"Being married does not make me stop being able to fight, dill-wad. If anything, it makes me stronger," Phillip stopped and flexed as a way of quitting the impromptu boxing match. "Can I have some of this?" he added, pointing at the box.

He looked at me, and I pointed to Salem since they were his. He nodded at his brother, and Phillip opened the box.

"Good grief, why are there so many in here?"

"I had to make three batches of white chocolate today. I didn't have to, but I wanted to. They weren't batches that I could sell with my normal stuff, so I brought a lot of it over here."

"Oh, my goodness it's so good," Phillip said with a mouthful. "Why in the world can't you sell it? What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing, it was just from test batches that I did this afternoon with a chef who was over at my apartment. He's going to buy chocolate from me every week for a recipe he makes in his restaurant."

"Come on, go ahead! Is that your first wholesale customer?" Phillip asked.

"Yeah, I've never even thought about selling my chocolate to restaurants, that was his idea."

"That's pretty cool. How did you meet him?"

"He's friends with my landlord."

"Nice," Phillip said, nodding.

I made eye contact with Salem as Phillip and I were talking. I didn't know what he was thinking. our expressions were unreadable but our eyes were locked.

"Can I have some more of this?" Phillip asked. "Can I take some home to Addie? She would love this."

"No," Salem said, joking.

"Of course you can," I interjected even though he was being silly.

"I have more of this at home. I didn't give him everything I made today. Take what you want, and I will replace it for Salem tomorrow, I promise."

Phillip made a face at his brother—a greedy face like he was going to take the whole box.

"You can't be stingy," Phillip said, taking several pieces out. "Especially since I came over here to tell you to come over to my house for dinner."

"Now you can have all you want. What's for dinner?"

Phillip laughed. "Addie's making fried chicken thighs."

"Yum."

"I know, I had to go work out just now to get ready for it."

"Are you just leaving the gym?" Salem asked. "Is that why you stopped by instead of calling?"

"Yeah, I was on my way home, and I figured I'd find you out here. I didn't know I'd find the chocolate fairy with you."

"She is a fairy," Salem said. He smiled at me when he said it. It was a fair assessment of my looks with my fair skin and red hair. I didn't know if I wanted to be that in his eyes, though.

"She's graduating this month," Salem added.

"Oh, congratulations."

"I was going to tell you guys that… I know you join us sometimes when we go out to eat as a family. Dad wants to take everyone to lunch after my graduation if you guys want to come to that. It's not next Saturday, but the next."

"I'm in," Phillip said. "Do we have to go to the ceremony?"

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