Excerpt from The Same Sky by Amanda Eyre Ward, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I went to Jake, brought him a beer. He opened it and drank, then I grabbed the can and took my own mouthful. The beer made the pain a bit less sharp, just for the evening. "Oh, God," I said, sitting down next to Jake, breathing the sultry air. The moon was still round and bright.

"I wish I knew what the point of this was," said Jake. "Or would you say were?"

"I don't know," I said, "and I don't care."

"Fair enough," said Jake.

People always seem surprised when they first meet me and Jake. He's good-looking and sure of himself, a blond former football star. In contrast, I'm nervous and dark-haired, more comfortable in the backcountry than at a country club. If Jake is a lion, regal and handsome, I'm a wren: fragile, easily spooked, ready to take flight. Somehow, though, it works. At night, I tuck myself into a ball, and Jake surrounds me, and I am warm.

In the moonlight, I saw a figure emerge from Beau and Camilla's house next door. "Hello?" called Camilla. As she approached, I could see she was carrying a metal pot.

"We're drinking on the swing," admitted Jake.

"I am so sorry," said Camilla. Her Nigerian accent made the words especially sad somehow.

"Did you see them take the baby?" I asked.

Camilla hesitated, then nodded. Camilla and Beau had two daughters who had inherited their father's light hair and their mother's feisty attitude. "I made soup," said Camilla, unlatching our gate.

"Thanks," I said. I made a move to stand, but Camilla shook her head.

"I'll put it in the kitchen," she said, climbing our three front steps, opening the door. I heard her set the pot on our stove, and then she reappeared. "We're here, if you need anything," she said. "I mean, we're there," she said, pointing.

"Thanks," Jake and I said in unison. We watched Camilla walk across the alley back to her home, where her family waited for her.

Excerpted from The Same Sky by Amanda Eyre Ward. Copyright © 2015 by Amanda Eyre Ward. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.