Chapter 21 You Have A Melting Look When You Cry
He started to get closer while he was saying that.
Natalie was facing him with her face propped on her hands. They were separated by half of the square table. A light smoke lingered in front of her. There was no way she could avoid looking at him.
Her heart was racing. Those hands that were on her face were getting warmer.
Natalie was surprised that she didn't avoid him at that time. She didn't know whether she was disturbed by the mist or she was distracted by the gentle breeze.
On the contrary, she would rather stay at that moment.
"Uncle Luke!"
A sudden shouting broke the ambiguity in the air.
There was a little boy who showed up on the rooftop. He seemed to be seven or eight-year-old and ran over excitedly. He was scampering around Luke and talking to him naively, without any embarrassment.
She could tell from their conversation that the little boy was probably the son of Luke's comrade, who he mentioned had passed away.
Luke was smiling while leaning back in his chair. He pointed his hand which was holding the cigarette to Natalie. "Say Hi to Natalie."
The little boy was cute with a little round face. He was just slightly higher than the square table. He responded to Luke by lifting his head to look at Natalie while greeting her.
He was being sweet and said, "Natalie is so pretty."
Everyone would be melted by seeing such an adorable child. Natalie leaned down slightly and asked him with a smile, "What is your name?"
"Harlan." He said slowly in his cute voice.
It was a nice name.
Natalie was a sentimental girl. She couldn't help but thought of her father and said softly, "That is such a beautiful name."
That wasn't the first time Natalie spent time with a child. Children were being admitted to the hospital from time to time. As a result, she knew how to interact with the children.
Natalie took a few candies that she always kept inside her bag. She offered them on her palm to Harlan. "Would you like to have some of them?"
"Thank you, Natalie!" Harlan was in the process of shedding his primary teeth. When he smiled, there were a few places with missing teeth which was very cute.
Natalie smiled and patted his head.
That was a lovely scene. Under the sun, Natalie was smiling and her eyes were filled with gentleness. It was like the river flowing in Spring.
In fact, she was a little girl herself.
Luke was looking at her hand which was patting the child's head. It was gentle, fair, and slender. He was pretty sure that Natalie would be a good mother when she had her child. She was gentle, sensible, and good-natured.
However, Luke was the opposite of her.
"Why don't you offer me the candies?" Luke asked suddenly.
"Don't you have enough while you were admitted to the hospital?" Natalie thought to herself. However, since there was a kid on site, she had to say something appropriate.
She said deliberately, "Those are only for children who are obedient."
For some reason, Luke could hear that Natalie was alluding that he had some attitude issues despite she didn't say it out.
Luke laughed.
At the same time, Harlan giggled and said, "Uncle Luke is no longer a child."
Natalie nodded and thought to herself that this child was smart.
Unexpectedly, there was a later part of his sentence, "He is Natalie's boyfriend!"
Natalie didn't know what to say and she denied it. However, Harlan seemed to be firmly believed in it. Her denial was to no avail. Then, she looked at someone and hinted that she needed help.
Luke wasn't planning to say anything at first.
But, when Natalie looked at him in distress, there were great sins arose from the bottom of his heart. He felt that being close to her would harm her and he would destroy her.
After resting for a while, Luke moved his lower lip to bit on his cigarette, took a last puff, and stubbed it out in the ashtray on the table.
Then, he called Harlan calmly, "What do you call me?"
Harlan replied properly, "Uncle Luke."
"How about her?" Luke pointed at Natalie.
"Natalie."
Luke narrowed his eyes and took a glance at Natalie. Then, he asked Harlan, "So, what should she call me then?"
Natalie was confused but she had a bad premonition.
Harlan was scratching his head while thinking about their relationship. After that, he seemed to understand and said, "She should call you Uncle Luke too!"
"You are so smart." Luke started to smile and looked at her. Then, he said, "Well, why aren't you calling me in that way? Even a child is more sensible than you."
Natalie was speechless.
She thought to herself, "Luke, you are digging your own grave!"
-
One day in the future, when Natalie thought back about that lunch, she mostly felt happy. That lunch wasn't having any heavy dishes. There were some stir-fried vegetables and fresh seafood. Raine was very good at cooking. All dishes were nice and kept with their original taste and flavor.
Luke was right. Natalie was indeed a very simple girl. As long as she was being fed well, that could dismiss whatever matters that had been bothering her for a few days.
Eating crabs was a skillful task. Natalie was in the plastic gloves and her head down. She was biting the meat out from the crab's shell bit by bit. She was focused and ate it very carefully. It seemed that there was nothing more attractive than those crabs in her hands.
Natalie seemed to have a very good appetite. Whenever she found the meat and munched it, she would smile happily. Luke looked at her.
He couldn't imagine that this was the girl who squatted at the roadside a few nights ago. That sulky girl, who seemed blank and swinging a hand-held firework stick that didn't light up.
Seeing that she almost finished her food, Luke asked Harlan to come over and said, "Get something for Natalie to drink. But not the mango juice."
Natalie was holding the bowl to finish her soup. Her lips were biting on the edge of the bowl. While she heard what Luke said in the last part, she paused for a while.
Then, she pretended she didn't hear it and sipped the soup with her head down.
Before they left, Luke took a walk around the sunken ship alone, without having Natalie with him.
Natalie didn't ask but she could sense that Luke must have been very close with Harlan's father. The real parting wasn't because of the distance, but it was about being alive or dead. Those who had deceased would be gone forever but those who were living would always miss them.
No one would have known this kind of helplessness better than her.
The scenery from the rooftop was wide and far, and the breezes were pleasant. Natalie was standing at the guardrail and looking down from the top. She saw Luke step onto a rocky reef and jumped onto the sunken ship.
The sky was blue. He walked into the ship and entered the blind spot of her vision.
It seemed that he had disappeared into a mysterious realm.
Natalie got to know from Raine that this house was designed by Harlan's father before his death. Harlan's mother always wanted to stay next to the beach. Unfortunately, he had gone while the design was ready, and Harlan was only 3-year-old at that time. Harlan's mother was overly depressed and passed away as well shortly.
If it wasn't because of the grandson, Raine probably wouldn't have been able to survive. Therefore, after checking with Raine, Luke bought the land and built the house according to the design.
Ever since then, Raine had been living here with Harlan.
Day after day, year after year. Raine saw countless sunrise and sunset. Sometimes it was depressing. But she still hoped that one day she would meet her son and daughter-in-law again.
With the wind blowing at Natalie's face, her eyes got teary gradually.
She suddenly thought of her mother.
After a long period of silence, Natalie took her mobile phone out of her pocket. She keyed in a series of numbers that she had remembered by heart and her fingertip stopped on top of the dial button. She hesitated for a long time before she hit on that button.
The dialing tones rang for more than half a minute before the call went through.
Natalie didn't expect that it would be answered at first, she was stunned for a while before she responded with excitement, "Grandma."
There was an unemotional "um" from the other end.
Grandma was a tepid person. As long as she was still willing to answer Natalie's call, that would be enough to make Natalie happy.
Natalie asked with a lovely voice, "Are you taking your nap, grandma?"
"What's up? Make it quick." Grandma didn't seem to want to chit- chat with her.
Natalie felt demotivated to talk.
"Nothing in particular. I just want to know how are you doing lately," Natalie continued, "I would also like to tell you that I...I  break up with Forrest."
Grandma sounded serious and said, "When does it happen?"
"Before New Year." Natalie didn't dare to tell her the exact time. Her voice was getting softer as if she had done something wrong. "We...We can't get along."
After being quiet for a few seconds, grandma responded coldly, "Well, it is just a break-up and it is none of my business. You don't have to tell me."
Natalie didn't see that coming. She thought grandma would have scolded her and threatened her to reconcile with Forrest Hart.
She had been so worried till she dared not to confess until today.
Surprisingly, nothing like that happened.
Natalie didn't know what to say at that moment.
"But grandma, you are the only relative I have." Natalie had one of her hands on the guardrail, her vision moved to her shoes, and murmured, "Who else can I share it with..."
Natalie wanted to share her feeling but her grandma hung up the phone after she told Natalie to stop interrupting her nap.
As usual, her grandma didn't respond positively to Natalie.
It seemed that being a family member with Natalie was the cause of her ominousness and she was trying her very best to avoid Natalie.
Then, all she could hear from the phone next to her ear was the busy tone.
Natalie remained motionless for a long while. After that, she exhaled and moved her hand away from her ear slowly.
Natalie knew why would grandma do that to her. Grandma was still unhappy about Natalie's mother, who cut ties with her. Natalie's mother was a headstrong person. When she was young, she sacrificed everything in an ungenuine love relationship with disregarded her mother's advice.
Therefore, the family had torn apart.
Despite Natalie understanding her grandma but she still couldn't take the way grandma responded to her comfortably.
It was hard for Natalie not to get depressed since the last family member she had in the world didn't accept her.
There was a shed of tears from Natalie's eyes.
Suddenly, she felt something rubbing against her short boots. When she looked down, it was Fourteen who squatted next to her feet.
Natalie was stunned for a while and thought of running away. On second thought, Fourteen used to be Luke's military dog. Then, an inexplicable sense of security emerged spontaneously.
Natalie was still feeling scared as Fourteen was a large breed dog and as tall as her thighs. But she forced herself to stop at where she was.
She held her breath slightly and tried to call its name, "Fourteen..."
Fourteen recognized its name and wagged its tail.
"Fourteen?" Natalie called its name again carefully. Her voice sounded like she was going to cry, with a little coquettish and whining.
Fourteen was wagging its tail with its tongue sticking outas if it was smiling at her.
Natalie didn't expect that a Shepherd dog, which looked fiercer than a wolf, would have such a docile and cute look.
She smiled. When her eyes were curved, those tears fell from her eyes.
Natalie wiped her tears, stretched her hand, and slowly put it on Fourteen's head. Fourteen was very well behaved which made Natalie have the courage to pat it gently.
It looked strong and big but yet it was so cute.
Natalie started to smile.
"Fourteen."
A man's deep voice came from the back. When Natalie turned to look at it, she saw Luke who was somewhere around.
She didn't notice that he came next to her. He made a gesture when he was leaning against the glass with his arms crossed.
He commanded, "Down."
Fourteen got the command. Within a second, it immediately leaned down and lay on the ground.
Natalie had never seen that before. It caught her in surprise and blew all her blue mood away. She smiled brightly and said, "That's amazing!"
"Who are you referring to?" Luke approached her casually and leaned on the guardrail next to her.
His coat was opened and there were three unbuttoned buttons on his shirt. His face had a strong outline, and he seemed to be cheeky.
He asked, "Are you referring to it or me?"
There was a saying, "Appearance was power". Sometimes people couldn't deny that a good-looking man could captivate someone's mind easily regardless of what he had done.
Natalie squatted of a sudden and pretended to play with Fourteen.
She couldn't deny that she was flustered.
That was overwhelming.
After Natalie managed to calm down, she patted Fourteen and responded to what he had said word for word, "Fourteen is much better than you."
Luke raised his eyes slightly but didn't argue about it. He smirked and said, "Let's go."
It had passed 3 am. It was time to go back.
"All right." Natalie stood up coyly and said goodbye to Fourteen.
After saying goodbye to Raine and Harlan, they drove back to the city.
The traffic was congested as it was the weekend. They spent a couple of hours to arrive Clovervale Residence which usually took them an hour.
It was an evening in the winter. The sky got darker sooner. Luke pulled the car at the residence's entrance. There was a street light right in front of the spot where he parked. The orange-colored light shined and went through the windshield, it was like a spotlight cast from the sky.
Natalie didn't get off from the car immediately and Luke didn't urge her as well.
Looking back from noon to the present, the development of the situation made Natalie confused. After about half a minute, she looked at the person who was in the driver's seat.
"I have yet to buy you a meal."
Well, she didn't have to pay for the lunch and that went against her purpose to come out today.
Luke wound down the window to get some air. He placed his arm by the window and smiled at her. "No rush. There is a lot of time in the future."
After thinking for a while, Natalie frowned and asked, "Luke, aren't you making fun of me?"
Natalie was an open book but she was extremely wary of Luke. She reiterated several times that she wasn't close with him. Even though she was drunk the other day, she didn't forget that he wasn't a good person.
But after today, she was finally willing to call him by his name.
"No more Mr. Bennington?"
He was making fun of her and teasing her deliberately by saying so. Natalie felt annoyed when she noticed that he had inadvertently broken her determination to keep a boundary from him. 
Natalie never yielded especially since there was something to do with Luke. She gritted her teeth and said it word for word, " Uncle Luke."
She almost wanted to carve the words "bad guy" on his head.
Luke started to laugh.
Luke could be very playful sometimes. When Natalie called him in the way Harlan did, Luke called her in the way Harlan did too. "Natalie, you are cuter when you are drunk."
Natalie was speechless.
When Luke was calling Natalie in that way, his tone changed and it sounded frivolous. She was embarrassed and didn't know what to say.
It seemed like the condition of the other night.
After a few seconds, Luke shook his hand in front of her, and asked curiously, "What does it mean by pink finger?"
Natalie was shocked.
There was only silence in the air.
Natalie got off from the car without looking back after she said, "I am going home." The car's door closed with a bang. The next thing Luke saw was a person wrapped in a white coat running past his eyes.
The sky and the sea that he saw during the daytime might have been too blue which caused the night didn't seem to pure black. It was more like a different shade of blue which she seemed to be submerged in the deep blue colored night like a white gull.
Luke closed the window and he was ready to make a move. But his mobile phone vibrated.
Luke took a glance at the incoming call and placed the phone to his ear.
"Luke, I received the news that Alcomara No.2 Hospital will hold an internal meeting tomorrow for member changing at 9 a.m. It is expected that representatives of Hart Group and President Bennington will go there in private."
After the insider was done reporting, Luke seemed gloomy while the night got darker.
Suddenly, there was some knocking on the window.
Luke took a glance at his side and someone who had left was there.
Luke finished up the call and wound down his window. Natalie bent and handed him a bottle of sour plum juice.
He didn't know what did it mean but he took it.
After that, Natalie said softly, " It's refreshing. Drive alert."
Luke was looking at the juice in his hand and listening to her gentle voice. It made that cold night suddenly seem worth reminiscing about.
Turning the bottle in his hand, Luke seemed shy. Despite his smiling, his tone was indistinguishable. "Even though you are young, you are good at taking care of others."
Natalie didn't give much response as she was very much used to his playful manner.
Luke's smile got deepened. He was beckoning to Natalie with his finger.
Natalie puzzled. "What?"
"Your phone." He said calmly.
Natalie looked hesitated as her hand was getting to her pocket slowly. She didn't know what he was going to do. But she gave him the mobile phone.
After Luke took it, he saved a phone number in her contact list quickly.
Then, he returned the mobile phone to her.
Without any reason, he said, "Try to take it easy when you want to cry in the future."
Natalie was speechless but she realized that she had cried more than once in front of him.
She wanted to refute but that man smiled playfully.
He said, " You have a melting look when you cry."
Natalie was annoyed. She pursed her lips and said fiercely, "Bye". Then, she walked away without turning back.
While Natalie was striding, she kept thinking about what Luke had done to her mobile phone just now.
She unlocked her screen and she saw her contact list.
There was a new contact number.
Remark: Luke.