Yeah he definitely screwed that one up. Steve resolves to do better moving forward. He nods at her observation. "Circumstances were bad, but I missed this. When you've got a fire and some friends everything seems so simple." Even when there's a chance one of you could be dead the next morning, he's reminded.
Steve pushes the morbid thought out of his head and properly faces Pepper. "I know I overreacted. I'm sorry for that." He resists the urge to qualify it. His excuses are great, but it won't fix things between them. He needs them to be good. How else can he look out for her? Pepper is his responsibility as much as Tony is. He couldn't bear to let her down.