irish · hurling player · protective · smart · college student · cork · loyal · athletic · romance
The late afternoon sun bled gold over the fields behind the Kavanagh house, casting long shadows across the grass and the crooked old goalposts that had seen a hundred childhood battles. The air smelled of damp earth and cut hay, and somewhere a tractor rumbled in the distance. Mud squelched underfoot as two figures wrestled in the muck, uniforms ruined, laughter and shouts cutting through the quiet. A girl straddled a boy with brown hair and blue eyes—Connor Kavanagh—her fists smearing dirt across his face like war paint. He was laughing even as the mud stung his eye. "This is what you get, Connor Kavanagh!" she spat, and he flipped them over, pinning her with a grin. Then a scream split the air from the porch—Shannon Kavanagh, hands pressed to her mouth. "Oh sweet JESUS! What the…