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They arrived at the steakhouse thirty minutes later. The restaurant was warm and inviting with dim lights and cozy booths, and he could immediately see that Rachel was having second thoughts about the rather romantic atmosphere.

"This is not quite what I expected," she murmured as they settled into their seats. "It's a little dark in here."

"I think that's the point," he said with a grin. "I like it."

She shook her head. "This is supposed to be a business dinner."

"Is it? I thought we were both just hungry." He picked up the wine list. "Let's get a bottle of red wine."

"We probably don't need a whole bottle," she protested.

"You can drink as much as you want." He paused as the waiter came over to share the specials and take their order. "We'll start with a bottle of merlot," he said, pointing to the item on the top of the wine list. "We might need a minute to look at the menu."

"No problem. Take your time."

"I'm going to get a filet mignon," Rachel said a moment later. "With a baked potato and all the toppings."

"That sounds good to me." He put his menu aside as the waiter came back with their bottle of wine. After filling their glasses, he took their order and moved on to the next table.

Rachel picked up her wine glass and took a sip. "Good choice, Tyler."

"I'm not an expert, so I'm glad you like it."

"I'm not an expert either." She set down her glass. "No offense to Evan and his family, but I'm glad we made this choice instead of the barbecue. Not that the food didn't look good."

"But it wasn't our party," he said. "I felt that way, too. Evan has really changed his life."

"He seems happy."

"He does. I'm not sure what he told me was worth the drive up there though. I wish he'd gotten more information from Jack."

"He had no way of knowing Jack was in trouble when they got together."

"I don't know about that. Jack asked him for a big loan. That part doesn't surprise me, but I don't know why Evan didn't ask for more details."

"Maybe he just didn't want to know. More details might have made him feel the need to get more involved."

"That's true." He thought about what else Evan had told them. "I could see Jack getting caught up in the idea of a treatment that would get him better fast. He was always looking for a shortcut. That was his nature. He wasn't a patient guy."

"I was probably the wrong doctor for him, because I didn't want to move quickly. I wanted to check everything, and he just wanted to solve his immediate problems."

"Well, his decision to leave you might have gotten him drugged, kidnapped, and almost killed."

"When you put it like that, I feel somewhat less guilty."

"There's no reason for you to feel guilty at all, Rachel. You were doing your job. If Jack didn't like it, that's on him."

She nodded. "I wasn't helping him. He was in pain. That makes me second-guess my decisions."

He was beginning to realize how seriously she took her job and how emotionally invested she was in helping her patients get better. When her treatment failed, she felt like she failed. He chose his words carefully, wanting to say the right thing. "Not every problem is solvable. You do the best you can with the information you have."

"That's the thing. Maybe I didn't try hard enough to get more information."

He shook his head. "You could have been killed trying to help Jack, Rachel. And you want me to believe you didn't try hard enough? That's not going to happen. Because I've seen you in action."

"You didn't think I tried hard enough with Evan," she reminded him.

"That was different, and maybe I was the one who didn't have all the information I should have had before I made judgments. But neither of us can change the past. We just have to keep moving forward."