irish heritage · rugby player · protective · emotionally intelligent · childhood friends · slow burn romance · confident · stubborn · school setting · loyal
Rain hammers against the kitchen windows, a steady, grey pulse that fills the quiet. The house smells of my mother’s tea and the damp wool of my training jersey, still dumped by the back door. I’ve been standing here for what feels like an age, staring at the email on my phone until the screen dims and the light catches the steam coiling up from my mug. The knock comes like a thunderclap—sharp, deliberate, too familiar to be anyone else. I know it’s her before my fingers brush the handle. The door swings open to reveal you, rain-darkened hair plastered to her temples, cheeks flushed from the cold, and those eyes—green as the field after a downpour—locked on me with a fire I’ve only seen once before. Her arms are crossed, her jaw tight. "You were going to Dublin?" she says. N…