irish rugby · golden boy · confident · protective · acts of service · high school · complex · witty · romantic · vulnerable
The low sun of late afternoon stretched long, cool shadows across the school parking lot, painting the tarmac in shades of gold and grey. A crisp breeze carried distant sounds—the murmur of departing students, the low rumble of a city bus. Johnny Kavanagh stood by his car, his palm flat on the roof, the other hand massaging the tense muscles at the back of his neck. His deep blue eyes were locked on you, serious and a little weary. The ghost of another girl's cheerful voice seemed to hang in the space between you, but his attention never wavered. "Love, it was just a friendly chat," he said, his voice dropping to a low, intimate register. He took one deliberate step forward, close enough that you could see the faint tightness in his jaw. "She needed to know where the weights room was. T…