Page 29 of All These Beautiful Strangers

“She took the boys swimming,” he said. “It’s a rare quiet and peaceful morning in the Rhodes house.”

I tried to hide my disappointment.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, do you know when she might be back?”

“It’ll probably be a couple hours,” he said. “Come on in.”

I didn’t know what else to do so I followed him inside to the kitchen.

“You can just set those on the counter there,” Greyson said. “I’ll put them away later.”

He opened the fridge and ducked his head in. “Want a soda or something to drink?”

“No, thanks,” I said. “I’ve actually got to get going. I have this philosophy test tomorrow I need to study for.”

“Philosophy, huh?” Greyson said as he took a drink from his water bottle. “Who are you studying? Aristotle? Descartes? Nietzsche?”

Shit. “Um, Foucault actually.”

“Oh, I wrote a paper on Foucault’s theory of panopticism,” he said, yawning and stretching his hands over his head. I tried to ignore the way his shirt rode up and exposed his tight, muscled abs.

“Right,” I said, swallowing the lump that had risen into my throat. What was wrong with me? I averted my gaze. “Panopticism—that’s what I have to write my paper on,” I said.

Greyson narrowed his eyes at me. “I thought you said you had to study for an exam.”

Shit.

“Yeah, well, the exam is a paper. But I need to study up a little to write it,” I said.

Take that, jerk-off.

He was smiling at me now.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re up to something,” he said. “You’re doing that thing where you scrunch up your face like you’re concentrating really hard or something. It’s the same face you made that time I was babysitting you and you and Ryder disappeared together and when you came back and I asked you what you were up to you said, ‘Nothing,’ but then I went upstairs to find you had TP’d my bedroom.”

“Yeah, well, maybe someone should have been paying a little more attention to babysitting than playing Donkey Kong on his Nintendo.”

“I was on level nine. I was about to save the princess.”

“Whatever,” I said. “I really have to get going.”

“To write your paper on Kant’s theory of panopticism?”

“Yes, to write my paper on Kant’s theory of panopticism.”

“Nice try, but panopticism was Foucault’s theory, not Kant’s,” Greyson said.

Shit.

“See, this is why I need to study,” I said.

“Charlotte, just tell me what you’re up to.”

I sighed. “Fine,” I said. “But you can’t tell Claire.”

“Perfect. My favorite things to do are the things I can’t tell my mother about,” Greyson said with a smile.