A middle-aged man stormed past us, and Ford maneuvered me out of his path so quickly and smoothly that I wouldn’t have realized he was protecting me if I hadn’t been paying such close attention.

Rocco’s mother threw her arms around both of her boys, hugging them fiercely.

“We’ll get through this,” she swore to them. “We’ll figure something out, and we’ll get through this.”

Rocco’s brother snarled, “There’s no getting through losing your mate, Mom. She was my whole ...