Extract - The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

This is my first involvement in a blog tour and I'm very happy to be taking part.

Below is the second extract from The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson which is just available in the shops. The first extract is on Wondrous Reads, the third extract is up on Chicklish and the fourth will be on Presenting Lenore.

Synopsis: A vibrant, deeply romantic and unmissable debut.

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life - and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, with a nearly magical grin. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But the two can't collide without Lennie's world exploding...

NB. The Sky is Everywhere is aimed for readers of 14+ and is reflected in the extract below.

Extract 2

I keep waiting for him to move his hand away, to turn back around, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t take his hand or gaze off of me. Time slows. Something shifts in the room, between us. I look into his sorrowful eyes and he into mine, and I think, He misses her as much as I do, and that’s when he kisses me – his mouth: soft, hot, so alive, it makes me moan. I wish I could say I pull away, but I don’t. I kiss him back and don’t want to stop because in that moment I feel like Toby and I together have, somehow, in some way, reached across time, and pulled Bailey back.
He breaks away, springs to his feet. “I don’t understand this.” He’s in an instant-just-add-water panic, pacing the room.
“God, I should go, I really should go.”
But he doesn’t go. He sits down on Bailey’s bed, looks over at me and then sighs as if giving in to some invisible force. He says my name and his voice is so hoarse and hypnotic it pulls me up onto my feet, pulls me across miles of shame and guilt. I don’t want to go to him, but I do want to too. I have no idea what to do, but still I walk across the room, wavering a bit from the tequila, to his side. He takes my hand and tugs on it gently.
“I just want to be near you,” he whispers. “It’s the only time I don’t die missing her.”
“Me too.” I run my finger along the sprinkle of freckles on his cheek. He starts to well up, then I do too. I sit down next to him and then we lie down on Bailey’s bed, spooning. My last thought before falling asleep in his strong, safe arms is that I hope we are not replacing our scents with the last remnants of Bailey’s own that still infuse the bedding.
When I wake again, I’m facing him, our bodies pressed together, breath intermingling. He’s looking at me. “You’re beautiful, Len.”
“No,” I say. Then choke out one word. “Bailey.”
“I know,” he says. But he kisses me anyway. “I can’t help it.” He whispers it right into my mouth. I can’t help it either.