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"That isn’t fair," he said His lips tightened, and he surveyed the roo every face, trying to decide how each would react to the gossip

"No, I guess I’ fair I don’t really understand what you’ve done to get to where you are I don’t understand what you ht lose But I do understand one thing"

"And what is that?" He stopped scanning the crowd and fixed aze The teht even so off two by two It surprised me to see that Iris was still in the arer, and by the look on his face, he had no intention of letting go Oliver had gone behind the bar to take over for Peter, and he was helping Colin fill pints and distribute shots of Jameson

"That no matter how much he protests to the contrary, Oliver will spend the rest of his life waiting for you unless you do so about it"

"So what do you propose I do?"

"Make up your mind Either he’s worth the risk you’ll have to take or he isn’t If he isn’t, tell him that, and make it clear so that he’ll finally move on For real"

"And if he is?"

"I think you can figure that out on your own"

"That I can," he said, and then drained the rest of his beer "You’ll excuse me"

"Of course" I watched hih the dancers and approached the bar Oliver reached out to take Adalass, but the detective shook his head and took Oliver’s hand I had never seen my uncle look so completely shocked His face hite and then flushed red, the goofiest s on his face as Adam led him around the bar and took hiuests as Adarew in enthusias

From behind me I heard a loud snort, and then, "Well would you look at that" Phil Jones, one of the hard-assed guys fro so hard that he spilled his beer I turned, ready to pounce and claw his eyes out "Looks like Cook finally grew a pair," he said, shaking the spilled beer off his hand

"About ti toood-bye to Colin and Claire for ," the other dockworker said "Take it easy" Noticing that I atching the off to replace his spilled drink