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“The same as yours. Busy, a little crazy.” Sloane took a breath. This wasn’t as easy as she’d thought. She still had to think about Ella’s reaction. How she would feel. But she had to talk to someone. “We met my long-lost family, so we had a family Christmas, too.”

“We?”

Sloane licked her lips. It’d slipped out without her even thinking about it. Were they a ‘we’? She had no idea. She nodded. “Me and Ella. She offered to drive and came along for moral support.”

Layla finished her mouthful of food. “Did she now?” She smiled, put her fork down, then leaned closer to Sloane. “I know that look on your face, Sloane Patterson. I remember when you and Jess got together – the subtle looks, the sly smiles. Ella’s not even here and you’re doing it. Is there something else you want to tell me?”

Sloane was soothed by the familiarity of their long friendship. Layla knew her.

“Nothing happened before Christmas Day.” She paused. “But that changed when we got home, and she didn’t leave until Nat walked in on us on the 27th.” Sloane winced at the final part.

Layla’s eyebrows rose to the ceiling. “Walked in on you? What the fuck does that mean?”

Sloane made a hand gesture that told Layla to keep it down. “Can you not shout it out to everyone here?”

Layla looked around the canteen. It was only half full, with some players and staff given extra time off if they requested it. Nobody in the space had taken any notice.

“It means,” Sloane continued in a borderline whisper, “that she walked in and saw Ella was there early on. Without any pants on.”

Layla’s eyes widened. “My definition of pants, or yours?”

Sloane snorted. “Mine, luckily. Yours would have been a disaster.”

“Poor Ella, either way.” Layla sat back and shook her head. “You never make it easy, do you? You always fish in the nearest pond.”

“It wasn’t intentional.” It hadn’t been. But you couldn’t help who you fell for. Had Sloane fallen for Ella? If she hadn’t before, she certainly had now.

“You’re shagging the performance coach. I guess that means your mental health is tip-top.”

“Far from it.” Sloane ran her fingers through her hair. It was soft; she’d forgotten to bring her hair wax today. Her mind had clearly been on other things. “I’m all over the place.”

“Is she in today?”

Sloane shook her head. “She’s gone to see family. It was something she’d intended to do. But it’s left more questions than answers. We had two amazing days, but what happens now?”

Layla ate the last of her lunch, then pushed her plate away. “What do you want to happen now?”

“I want us to sail off into the sunset. But I don’t know what she wants. We didn’t talk much, and then she had to leave.” It didn’t sound any better when she said it out loud. “We like each other, I know that. We had a great Christmas together.” She said the last words with far more confidence, because she knew in her heart they were correct. She didn’t know what Ella wanted in the future. She didn’t know what she wanted either. But she knew for sure that in the present, when it was just the two of them, they were golden.

Her friend raised an eyebrow. “Makes me happy to be married.” She put a hand on Sloane’s arm. “But this could be a good thing. Ella is more level-headed than Jess. More than your previous girlfriend, too.”

Sloane crinkled one eye. “You know too much about me.”

“Far too much,” Layla agreed with a grin. “But I could see you working. Tell Lucy, keep it separate from work, why not?”

“Because what if I fall in love with her, and then I have to leave? This year was meant to be about me putting some distance between me and Jess, and me and my family. It was about finding out who I really am. About showing that I can make it in another country. But I never intended to stay.” She already had way too many feelings when it came to the subject of Ella. All of them burnished with flecks of gold and lust. Could they turn into love? She pushed that thought from her mind.

“Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” Layla sat back. “My wife told me that when I freaked out after she got pregnant on our first try. I didn’t think I was ready. I didn’t think I could cope. I did. When something’s right, you work to make your life fit around it.” She shrugged. “That’s what you’ve got to figure out when it comes to Ella. Does she feel right?”

Liquid glitter flowed through Sloane’s veins. She pictured Ella, lying in her bed, gleaming like always.

“More than right.”

“Then strap in for the ride.”

* * *

Sloane gota cab back from training, then went for a walk along the nearby canal, even though it was bitingly cold. Or “brass monkeys” as the locals liked to say. She was learning more and more UK slang every day, and she had to admit she had a certain fondness for it.