On A Night Like This (The Callaways) by Barbara Freethy

even had breakfast with a man, much less cooked for one. Not that she had much skill in the kitchen anyway. Her mom had tried to teach her, but her father liked his meals just so, and she'd always felt too much pressure to cook, so she'd usually sat on a stool, chatting while her mom made dinner.
    A wave of sadness ran through her.
    "What's wrong?" Aiden asked, his sharp gaze raking her face as he glanced over at her from the stove.
    She started, straightening. "Nothing."
    "You'd be a lousy poker player. You have way too many tells."
    "And a tell is?"
    "A sign of what kind of cards you're holding."
    "I was thinking about my mom. She was the cook in our family."
    "I'm sorry I missed the funeral, but I was out of the country."
    "Were you?" she asked in surprise. "I just thought you were busy."
    "I wouldn't have missed your mother's funeral. I was in Ireland with my cousin, Tommy."
    She vaguely remembered hearing about his trip back to the "old country" as the Callaways liked to refer to a homeland that had been a hundred years earlier by Aiden's great-grandfather.
    "Did you like it there?" she asked.
    "I did. It's a beautiful country."
    "I'd like to go sometime."
    "You should," he said, as he turned his gaze back to the eggs he was scrambling.
    "I'll put that on the To Do list."
    He smiled. "Still have one of those, too, do you?"
    "Doesn't everyone?"
    "Not me."
    "So you have nothing to do today?"
    "Aside from making breakfast, and getting you that phone number, my day is wide open."
    "Maybe you should try to find out what happened to Kyle."
    His mouth drew into a grim line. "I knew I was going to regret sharing that with you."
    "You have to find a way to fill in the blanks, so that you can defend yourself."
    "How do you know I have a defense? Everyone else thinks I'm to blame. Maybe I am."
    "Then you should know that, too," she said. "You may not remember anything right around the time you fell, but what about before that?"
    Silence followed her words. Aiden tossed the eggs in the pan, then said, "The fire was bigger than we expected. We'd make some ground, then lose it. But we kept working the way we always did. Then the winds changed abruptly. I debated whether or not to retreat. I was having trouble getting information from the other commanders. The radio kept going in and out. Then the fire blew up on us. Our exit routes were cut off. The team separated. Kyle and I were together, but he was way ahead of me. I don't even know if he realized I was with him, or if he was too disoriented by the fire. He just kept walking, sometimes running, and I could see he was heading straight into the fire. I couldn't get his attention. The fire was all around us." He blew out a breath as he finished. "And that's all I know."
    "It sounds like an accident," she ventured.
    "Does it?" he challenged. "I waited too long to bail out. Kyle's death is on my head."
    "Maybe you need someone to blame, too," she suggested.
    "Better me than Kyle," he said.
    "What does that mean?"
    "Forget it."
    "Aiden. Did Kyle do something wrong?"
    "I don't know. But I'm sure as hell not going to try to pin anything on him. Kyle has a wife and a baby son who are mourning him, along with his parents and his brother and sister. They're heartbroken. I won't add to their pain. If they need to blame me, I'm okay with it."
    She met his gaze. "I understand, but you need answers for yourself. You're not okay. You don't sleep. You're thinking about quitting. That's nowhere close to being okay."
    "I'll deal with it."
    "Maybe I can help. I can be very intuitive and objective."
    "I'm not one of your clients, Sara, and I'm finished talking. The eggs are almost done. If you want to help me, why don't you make us some toast?"
    She sighed. "You can be so stubborn."
    "Look who's talking? When did you get to be so pushy? You used to be timid and shy."
    "I grew up and became a lawyer," she said. "I've also been taking care of myself since I was nineteen years old."
    "Well, how about