What does it mean?

Frustrated or not, he could put aside the lecture to be there when she needed him to. He was learning the importance of being reachable to his children, and did not squander their trust. He listened carefully as she began to explain. Naturally, his ears flattened at the dreaded mention of a ‘boy’ but he refrained from speaking for a moment. His inner wolf wanted to snap ‘Boy, what boy!’ but he had no desire to scare her away.

Instead, he feigned patience and sat before her. Offering her the affection he had denied her a moment ago. Absentmindedly, his cat-like claws stretched out and began to groom the fur behind her ears and down her spine. “Perhaps your friendship means something to this boy. Perhaps he is afraid of mucking it up, and thinks twice and thrice before saying something. A caution like that would make him seem jerky and uncertain when before he might seem far more natural to be around. It might help if I knew the boy, and the circumstances of when he started acting so.” he said, carefully, carefully. Prying for more information, without seeming as though that was what he was doing.