Freedom (The F-Word #5) - E. Davies Page 0,6

was super-cute. A couple inches shorter, he had a narrow face that tapered to a cute, pointed chin, light scruff along his jawline, golden-brown eyes, and full lips that curved up into a gorgeous smile.

All of which was incredibly distracting when Henry was trying to be a gentleman. The airplane seemed to be the easiest part of the journey for him, maybe because the plane was pretty small. Jaden had asked for the aisle seat so he didn’t have to see the ground.

Henry had at first figured it was a fear of flying—a common fear, and a very sensible one, in his opinion. He preferred the ground himself. But it clearly wasn’t just flying that Jaden was afraid of.

The conversation for the flight was easy. Henry stayed in work mode, calm and in control. He just chatted about TV shows, since he didn’t want Jaden to ramble while he was nervous. Like alcohol, fear altered consciousness. It wouldn’t be fair to exploit that.

By the time they landed, Jaden’s anxiety had clearly ratcheted up again. Leaving the airport, he kept his head down and nearly sprinted to the limo that was taking them straight to the Grand Canyon.

At least it was just the two of them, so Henry could sit next to Jaden and keep his attention on something other than what was going on in his brain. Once they’d tossed their backpacks by their feet and buckled in, Henry settled back for the drive.

“What do you love doing? Tell me a bit about you,” Henry encouraged with a smile.

It was an awkward first-date question, but on the other hand, talking about passions tended to bring people out of their heads. Henry knew that well from his own work guiding tourists through backcountry wilderness they might never have experienced before.

Jaden’s gaze flickered to Henry’s face, and then he fidgeted with his fingers, twisting them tightly together. “I love… um… I don’t know. I used to love a lot of things, and then I got really depressed.” He winced, clearly mortified. “Sorry.”

Henry’s heart squeezed with sympathy. He’d had his own years suffering under that fog. He knew exactly what it was like to drift away from things you once loved, until you felt like a stranger in your own life. He wanted to grab Jaden’s hand and help bring him back into this moment, even just for today.

In his shoes, Henry wasn’t sure he would have been able to go on a blind date in another state. That took balls.

“No need to apologize,” Henry reassured Jaden easily. “Tell me anything you want.”

They had a little while to drive, after all, and just the two of them to make conversation for the whole rest of the day—and tonight, and in the morning.

How the hell was he going to manage all of that? He hoped Jaden had more experience than him in managing an overnight date. Henry’s last successful first date had been years ago, and that had led to a relationship, so he’d been off the market ever since.

And look how well that had gone. His stomach still flipped when he thought about trying to date again. And there was no escaping the fact this was a date.

Henry’s heart raced, and he pushed his own anxiety back. There was nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

So far, he hadn’t really gotten to know Jaden, but he already sensed that he was smart and funny when his anxiety wasn’t taking over his adrenaline system. Surely he’d be open-minded, too.

Jaden gulped. “Right. So, I got depressed. Had to drop out of college, and I moved here—Denver, I mean—to get away from the memory of being such a loser.”

It was hard for Henry not to interrupt and point out that Jaden was being a badass right now, no matter how much anxiety he had about it. He bit his lip to keep quiet and let Jaden talk.

“I live by myself now, in a little apartment with a mountain view. I work from home, doing phone-based jobs. They don’t pay well, but it’s something, at least. It’s not a phobia of people, it’s… agoraphobia, that’s the technical term.”

Henry glanced past Jaden at the wide-open, flat scrubland beyond and its pale dirt, tufts of scrubby bushes, mountains in the far distance. It had to be the worst place ever to bring an agoraphobe.

Open spaces scared Jaden? And he was going to the Grand Canyon? This was… a hell of a choice.

Henry wasn’t sure he’d met anyone like Jaden