Chapter 45

Only that.

“I hadn’t planned on it, Mr. Novotny.” I put as much boyish ruefulness in my voice as I dared. I didn’t want to come across as an idiot. “I mean, we were just kids at the time.” I was safe saying that, since Mann had met Patterson when he’d started Philips Exeter, and even if that skinny-dipping episode hadn’t happened until almost graduation, a man of thirty-seven would look back and see the eighteen-year-old he had been as a kid. I glanced cautiously at his mother, surprised to find she was smiling.