46 parts Complete Fresh from captaining England to their historic Euros victory, Leah Williamson should be revelling in the moment. The parades, the interviews, the celebration at Buckingham Palace-she's the face of a nation's triumph, the captain whose name is on everyone's lips.
Ashley West has no intention of being there. A rising star on the West End stage, she's been dragged to the Palace celebrations by her best friend Emma, reluctantly swapping rehearsals and quiet evenings for a world of roaring football fans and champagne flutes. She plans to stay at the edges, unseen, until the night is over.
Then, by sheer chance, Leah nearly collides with her outside the Palace gates. A tangle of apologies, a shared laugh, and a glance that lingers far too long for two strangers. Leah is captivated-by Ashley's warmth, by her refusal to be dazzled by fame, by the way she feels like a breath of calm in a night full of chaos.
As Leah's world hurtles forward in a whirlwind of media demands and Ashley's in the unforgiving spotlight of the stage, they find themselves meeting in the spaces between-late-night conversations, stolen coffees, quiet corners where the rest of the world can't reach them.
But with their lives pulling them in opposite directions, can a footballer bound by the pitch and a performer bound by the stage find a way to write a love story that lasts beyond the final whistle?
