"Yeah."

"Mom'd freak if she knew.'*

"Yeah."

"I ate a whole bag of Doritos at Steve Jacobucci's birthday party last week."

"No kidding?"

"And a box of Nerds at Tasha Wainwright's skating party."

"Cool."

"Must be nice to eat whatever you want, whenever you want," Matt said.

Justin shrugged. "It's okay, I guess."

The boys came to a halt in the driveway. Matt saw his mom and Bonnie waiting for them on the back patio, a tray of snacks sitting on the table. Hank was already munching away.

"Your mom's pretty cool," Justin said.

"She's okay."

"She's always home when you are. She hangs out with you and stuff."

"Guess so."

"Must be nice," Justin said.

***

Charlotte took one look at the way her son was outfitted and sighed. She'd gone over this with him before, but it was like talking to a pile of bricks.;

"Have you been spying again, Matt?"

His head popped up from his snack and his eyes got big. "Just playing around, Mom."

"But you haven't been invading people's privacy again, right?"

Her son blinked. She groaned-and looked over at Bonnie.

Since Kurt died, Charlotte had searched desperately for something fun and educational to keep Matt busy, keep him excited and positive. Matt had idolized his father and loved him fiercely. When he died, he took the center out of the boy's universe, and nothing seemed to interest him. He skipped baseball last season. His grades plummeted. And then, suddenly, Matt developed a passion for all things related to espionage, and he set about collecting Mega-Wheat cereal box tops and saving his allowance until he could afford to send away for his beloved spy kit-binoculars, camera, decoder ring, notebook.

Charlotte had been grateful for the distraction until the day she dropped off several rolls of film to be developed and got a load of photo after photo of the residents of Hayden Heights going about their daily routines-getting into their cars, going to their mailboxes, taking out their trash, eating in their kitchens, kissing in their bedrooms.