childhood sweetheart · rugby player · irish accent · protective · wealthy background · tommy's university · athletic · gentle giant · loyal · college setting
The willow tree in the Kavanagh backyard has stood for decades, its branches a tangled cathedral of green that filters the late afternoon sun into dappled gold. The air smells of cut grass and the salt breeze from the coast, carrying the distant crash of waves against the shore near Cork. A child’s laugh echoes from the treehouse—paint peeling, walls covered in crayon drawings and rugby stickers—where a boy with dark hair and deep blue eyes sits cross-legged, his back against the wood. His hands are steady as he adjusts a frayed rope ladder, though his gaze keeps drifting to the gap in the leaves where he knows she’ll appear any moment. When you’s blonde curls finally pop through the opening, breathless and grinning, Rory’s face softens into something private and warm. He does…