On A Night Like This (Callaways #1)

When they decided to buy a condo in the city, they were gone almost every weekend. Once Vicky moved back, Kyle seemed down, distant. I figured he was missing his wife and kid. I tried to get him to go out with the rest of the team for drinks or dinner, but he usually said no. Those last few days he was packing up, getting ready for the move. I offered to help, but he turned me down." He let out a frustrated breath. "I think now that I gave him too much space."
    She gave him a thoughtful look. "You said you figured —using the past tense."
    "So?"
    "So, reading between the lines, it sounds like you think there might have been more going on with Kyle than just being depressed about his wife and kid being in another city."
    "Very sharp on the details, aren't you?"
    "I told you I'm a good listener, and that's not an answer."
    He sat down on the edge of the bed. "I might be trying too hard to come up with something."
    "Just say it, whatever it is. Let's get it on the table." She sat down on the chair by her desk.
    "You're a lot more direct than you used to be."
    "No point in wasting time. Tell me what you're worried about."
    "This doesn't go outside this room?"
    She met his gaze head on. "No, it doesn't."
    "Okay. I saw Kyle in town one day and he was having a heated conversation with a woman I didn't know. They were standing on the sidewalk in front of a hotel. She put a hand on his arm, and the gesture seemed intimate. A few minutes later, they walked into the hotel."
    "Did you ask Kyle about it?"
    "No. I was waiting for him to tell me. I couldn't ask him if he was cheating on his wife."
    "Couldn't you? I didn't think you and Kyle worried about boundaries."
    He tipped his head. "In the old days, maybe not. But like I said, Kyle had become more distant. I don't want to believe he was having an affair. Kyle loved Vicky."
    "Vicky was gone, and he was lonely."
    "That's not a reason for having an affair."
    "Men have had affairs for absolutely no reason at all," she pointed out, unable to keep the sharp tone out of her voice.
    He raised an eyebrow. "Are you speaking from personal experience, Sara?"
    She hesitated, but Aiden's demanding gaze compelled her to add, "I haven't been married, but I have been cheated on. And my boyfriend had no explanation except to say it didn't mean anything, and I shouldn't worry about it."
    "Ouch. Did you kick him to the curb?"
    "Oh, yeah."
    "You know, it probably didn't mean anything, Sara. Sex and love are not the same thing."
    "Well, you would say that," she said.
    "What does that mean?"
    "Come on, Aiden, you've always been a player. You had a million girls around when we were growing up. Since you're still single and still… Anyway, I'm sure you don't spend too many nights alone."
    "Still what?" he asked. "You've developed a bad habit of drifting off in the middle of a sentence."
    That was because she was talking way too much. "You know what you look like, Aiden. I don't need to make your head any bigger."
    "So you think I'm attractive." The teasing light in his eyes that reminded her of the boy she'd fallen so hard for.
    She really needed to leave town before her old crush came completely back to life. "Let's get back to Kyle. If there was another woman, maybe we can find her."
    "I might be completely off base," he said.
    "You have good instincts. What other theories do you have?"
    He stared back at her for a long moment. "I wasn't sure how Kyle could afford the condo. Smokejumpers don't make a lot of money. A while back, when we were a lot younger, Kyle got caught up in gambling. He said he'd learned his lesson—that the house always wins – but I wonder if he got himself into some financial trouble."
    "That doesn't seem like something he would keep from you."
    "He might. I got pissed off at him the first time around. He lost some of my money along with his."
    "So gambling, women… anything else?"
    Aiden's mouth turned down into a frown at her words. "I feel like an asshole. Kyle was a good man. He probably wasn't doing anything wrong. I shouldn't be doing this."
    "You haven't done anything except talk to me. You don't have to feel guilty for wanting to find the truth, Aiden. What you do with it is up to you." She paused. "Have you spoken to Vicky? She might be able to answer some of your questions."
    "I tried a little while ago. She had a lot of things to say, none of them good. She said that Kyle had asked to leave the season early and that I had said no. That wasn’t true. I don't