“Thank God I have you, sweetie,” I said to Meadow. “At least you can carry on a decent conversation.” She meowed in agreement, and I smiled. I swore cats were smarter than humans sometimes. There was another long stretch of silence before Rhys surprised me by asking, “Why do you volunteer at an animal shelter?” I was so startled by the fact that he’d initiated a non-security-related conversation I froze mid-pet. Meadow meowed again, this time in protest. I resumed my petting and debated how much to tell Rhys before settling on the simple answer. “I like animals. Hence, animal shelter.”
