"But you'll never be able to do enough, will you?"
An angry retort died on her lips. She had never examined the psychology behind her ambition. She had never allowed herself to examine it.
But now that she'd been confronted with this hypothesis, she had to admit that it had merit. The ambition had always been there. She had been born with a type-A personality, was always an overachiever.
But not to the degree of the last few years. She pursued goals with a vengeance and took perceived failures hard.
She worked to the exclusion of everything else. It wasn't a matter of her career taking precedence over other areas of her life; it was her life. Was her mad, singular desire to succeed a self-inflicted penance for those few ill-chosen words spoken in the heat of anger? Was guilt her propellant?
They lapsed into silence, each lost in his own troubling thoughts, grappling with the personal demons they'd been forced to acknowledge.
"Where in New Mexico?"
"What?" Tiel turned to him. "Oh, my destination?
Angel Fire."
"Heard of it. Never been there."
"Mountain air and clear streams. Aspen trees. They'd be green now, not gold, but I hear it's beautiful."
"You hear? You haven't been there either?"
She shook her head. "A friend was lending me her condo for the week."
"You'd be there by now, all tucked in. Too bad you placed that first call to Gully."
"I don't know, Doc." She glanced at Sabra, then looked at him. Closely. Taking in every nuance of his rugged face.
Plumbing the depths of his eyes. "I wouldn't have missed this for the world."
The urge to touch him was almost irresistible. She did resist, but she didn't break eye contact. It lasted a long time, while her heart thudded hard and heavily against her ribs and her senses hummed with a keen, sweet awareness of him.
She actually jumped when the telephone rang.
Clumsily she scrambled to her feet, and so did Doc.
Ronnie grabbed the receiver. "Mr. Galloway?"
He listened for what seemed to Tiel an eternity. Again she curbed the impulse to touch Doc. She wanted to take his hand and hold on to it tightly, as people are wont to do when waiting to hear life-altering news.
Finally Ronnie turned to them and placed the earpiece against his chest. "Galloway says he's got the district attorney of Tarrant County, and whatever this county is, plus a judge, himself, and both sets of parents, agreed to meet and hammer this thing out. He says if I admit to wrongdoing and submit to counseling, maybe I'll get probation and not have to go to jail. Maybe."
Tiel nearly collapsed with relief. A small laugh bubbled from her throat. "That's great!"
"It's a good deal, Ronnie. If I were you, I'd grab it," Doc told him.
"Sabra, is that okay with you?"
When she didn't respond, Doc nearly knocked Tiel off her feet as he brushed past her and knelt beside the girl.
"She unconscious."
"Oh, God," Ronnie cried. "Is she dead?"
"No, but she's got to get help, son. And I mean fast."
Tiel left Sabra in Doc's care and moved toward Ronnie.