Bella's POV
Ronan arrived in eleven minutes. I know because I counted every single one of them, standing beside the bench with Kai's small hand wrapped tight around mine, Alexander hovering a few feet away like a man who had finally understood the shape of what he had lost.
"Hey, bud." Ronan squatted down the second he reached us, voice steady in a way that made Kai's shoulders finally drop from around his ears. "You okay?"
"I want to go home."
"Then we're going home." Ronan scooped him up in one easy motion, Kai's face immediately burying into his shoulder, and only then did Ronan look up at Alexander, expression carved out of something far colder than anything he'd shown at the pumpkin patch. "I believe the supervised hour is over."
"It's only been forty minutes," Alexander said wea
