Second Chance: A Christian Romance (Royals Book 2)

by Nicole Taylor

  Robert chuckled lightly and his hand involuntarily touched his cheek as he recalled the stinging slap Dana had bestowed on him a few weeks earlier.

  “Which is why I need to see her before then. I need to soften her heart towards me so that when I do turn up tomorrow she won’t try to slap off my other cheek.”

  Anna grabbed her bag and stood abruptly, causing the chair to scrape the floor.

  “I guess being an actor doesn’t create enough drama in your life.”

  Robert tilted his head to the side and watched her.

  “Not nearly enough,” he said in a droll manner.

  She rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say. You’re the boss.”

  “You sure about that? Sometimes I think you think you’re the boss.”

  “And at those times, like now, you put me firmly back in my place.”

  A corner of Robert’s mouth lifted in a smile as he stared up at the middle-aged woman, who lately had become one of the people he trusted most.

  “I’m sorry, Anna. There are just some things that defy explanation.”

  She shook her head and her chin length black bob bounced around her face.

  “And logic too. I’ll give Assante your regards and explain that you’re otherwise engaged tonight.”

  As Robert absently watched Anna’s retreating back, he wondered if it defied logic to think that once Dana found out he was shooting the commercial she would be amused instead of enraged. It had seemed like a great idea at the time, getting her on the shoot. Now he wasn’t so sure.

  ~*~*~*~

  She had overslept. It was either jet lag or she was coming down with something but when Dana’s eyes popped open, she knew instinctively that she’d slept too long. She sat up in the bed and swung around to peer at the clock on her bedside table. She’d promised Robert she’d meet him for drinks at 6:00 p.m. It was now 7:04!

  She practically flew to the shower. When she emerged a few minutes later, she tried to decide what she’d wear. She grabbed the first dress she put her hands on and stepped into it. She reached behind, zipped it up and stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror.

  She immediately second-guessed her selection. It was a dress from Heather’s collection—a pretty, purely feminine, cobalt blue chiffon number that reached just above her knees. It had a gunmetal leaf design on the waistband, shoulders, and leading into the neckline. While it was not immodest, it had flirt written all over it.

  This was not a date. She was meeting with Robert to tell him that this would not work out. She’d called one of her friends from church and outlined the scenario. The friend reminded her that this actor was a worldly guy. He was always in the tabloids attending some function or the other with a drink in his hand and a female on his arm. He did not share her commitment to Christianity and it would be a mistake for her to enter into a relationship with him expecting him to change. Furthermore, as she was a babe in Christ, it was risky to get involved with someone who could easily draw her back into the lifestyle she’d left behind. There was no future for them and that was the end of it.

  She thought of wearing something more nondescript. It was too late to change, though. A quick glance at her watch revealed that it was now 7:26 p.m.

  Dana sighed. It would have to do. She barely had time to brush out her hair, put on a layer of mascara and run the lip gloss tube over her lips before she dashed from the hotel room.

  ~*~*~*~

  Robert declined the waiter’s offer of another drink and studiously avoided the gaze of the young woman sitting at the bar giving him the come hither look. He glanced at his watch again. It was now 7:25 p.m. and still no Dana Dickson. Clearly, she wasn’t going to show. He signaled to the waiter and requested the bill. Perhaps he might still be able to participate in the dessert stage of Assante’s dinner. Might as well, since his plans for the evening were all shot.

  He paid the bill and was about to stand when he glanced up and all the breath was sucked from his lungs. It was her. And she looked stunning.

  Even all the way across the room he could see how the beautiful blue dress she wore made her sea-green eyes just pop. Her hair floated around her shoulders in lush curls that were breathtaking in their simplicity. She looked like an angel and he could see how every guy in the room stopped talking and turned to gaze at her.

  She appeared oblivious to their stares as she scanned the room. When he stood and her eyes rested on him, she seemed to hesitate for a moment before she broke out in a heart-stopping smile and purposefully strode towards him.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said breathlessly when she finally reached him.

  “For what?” he asked as though in a trance. What could she have possibly done wrong in her entire life?

  “For being so late. Didn’t we agree to meet at six?”

  He slapped his forehead. “Yes, of course, we did. What happened?” he asked as he pulled back the chair for her to sit and then joined her.

  “I overslept. I guess I was more beat from the long flight than I thought.”

  “That’s okay. I’m just glad you’re here. Look, I’m kind of hungry. Why don’t we go to the restaurant and order dinner.”

  “That’s a terrific idea. I’m actually ravenous myself.”

  ~*~*~*~

  “So, I take it you’ve read Anna Karenina?” Dana asked Robert. They sat opposite each other in the hotel’s Caruso Roof Garden Restaurant, which offered a spectacular view of the Gulf of Naples.

  “Once or twice.”

  “I have to say, I never took you for the classic novel type either.”

  “My mother is a screenwriter and she absolutely loves books. She wanted to ensure that her three sons, that is, me and my brothers Vincent and Nicholas, all shared her love of reading. The Cortelli boys, I’m afraid, instead had a passion for sports, football in particular, so Ma used to make us earn time to play by reading.”

  Robert paused to take a forkful of his baby veal chop Contadina.

  “How’d she do that?” Dana asked, not taking her eyes off him as she sipped her red wine.

  “She’d make us read classic books for the same amount of sports playing time. So two hours of Charles Dickens meant we got to play football for two hours. The result was that we became as great at the sport as we did at language skills. It was a great nuisance to us at the time, of course, and we often did it grudgingly but over time we realized the benefits. Reading really broadens your horizon. Now tell me about you. Where’d you grow up?”

  “Brooklyn.”

  “Really? I don’t detect a strong Brooklyn accent.”

  “I get that often. I spent my formative years in a posh area of Brooklyn, Prospect Heights. My early childhood education was at a private school. They emphasized proper grammar. When I entered public school at ten, I was teased by my classmates for being stuck up.”

  “You don’t seem stuck up to me,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Yeah, the kids soon learned I wasn’t too stuck up to punch them.”

  “Ouch! Why would you have punched them?”

  “Kids can be mean and we didn’t have a lot of money. All of my clothes came from Goodwill. It seemed like fun to pick on the girl with the posh accent who wore the used clothes, I guess. I don’t know. Anyway, they soon learned I wasn’t the type of girl you could take advantage of.”

  “I hope they learned their lesson as quickly as I did.”

  Dana snorted and nearly choked on her wine. It was so difficult not to be drawn to this guy. He was so was funny and engaging.

  “So, if you didn’t have money how did you get into private school in the first place?”

  She sobered instantly and was silent for a minute.

  “My father was a successful photojournalist and he worked for Reuters. We were well off. My mother stayed at home and took care of us.”

  She paused and took a deep breath.

  “Dad was killed on assignment in Bosnia when I was eight years old. That changed things for
us financially. My mother only had a high school diploma and had never worked outside the home. We had to make some changes. One of them was my sister and me switching to public school. Another was leaving our home in Prospect Heights and moving to a tiny apartment in Flatbush.”

  “That adjustment must have been tough. How did you cope?”

  “I had to cope. It was never a question of how. My mom depended on me a lot, especially when she began going to night school to get her degree. She left us with folks from her church but she always relied on me to look out for the girls. Especially my baby sister Ronnie, who was born a few months after my dad was killed. I just did what I had to do. She called me her little old woman.”

  She gave him a wry smile.

  “I guess I grew up that year. I was never really a kid again.”

  “You are so strong. That’s one of the things I admire about you. I also admire how proud and fierce you are, like a warrior. Yet you’ve also got a compassionate, caring side.”

  Dana cocked her head to one side and viewed Robert with interest.

  “You picked all that up from our three encounters?”

  He nodded. “Oh yeah. You’d be amazed how much you can learn from a person if you’re paying enough attention.”

  She looked back down at her food as he continued to ask questions. This was so new. Most guys weren’t interested in getting to know her character. It almost seemed irrelevant. They wanted her because of her looks. They fawned all over her, laid it on thick, and pretended to be someone they were not just so she would take them on. Robert Cortelli, on the other hand, seemed different. Not only was he sharing intimate details of his life with her, but he was interested in her character, and her life as well. How refreshing.

  “So, where are your sisters now? What are they doing with their lives?” he asked.

  Dana smiled as her thoughts shifted to her younger sisters.

  “Barbara, my younger sister, is eighteen-years-old. She just finished high school and guess what? She has run off to Hollywood to become an actress.”

  “Really? Is she any good?”

  “In my view, she is,” Dana admitted. “I believe that she’ll do well in the right hands. She’s very talented and also very smart and independent. She wants to do things on her own without help from me. Although she has agreed to let me loan her the money for her apartment and a small car so she can drive to her auditions. She’s very headstrong, though, and I’m a little afraid for her.”

  “Why?”

  “Afraid that she could end up in the wrong hands, advised by the wrong people, that kind of thing.”

  “Who’s her agent?”

  “I’m not quite sure…”

  “I can put her in touch with my agent, Sandy Brown. He’s great at what he does. The thing is he only likes to take on people who he thinks has the potential to become big stars. I think I can convince him to take her on, though.”

  “Oh! That’s very nice of you.”

  “All I can do is set the stage. She’s the one who has to go out there and wow them.”

  “I think she can do that.”

  “And your last sister? How old is she?”

  “My baby sister is Ronalda. We call her Ronnie. She’s a fourteen-year-old and in high school. Claims she wants to be a model like me. She certainly has the height for it. She’s already taller than our mom, and our mom is no shrimp,” she said with a laugh. “Plus, Ronnie’s gorgeous. But I don’t think my mother is going to support that particular fancy. She didn’t even want me to go to Paris.”

  She took a sip of her wine and then continued, “So, what was it like growing up with a Hollywood legend as a dad?” She was hungry to learn more about his life.

  “We didn’t think of him like that. To us, he was just Dad. When I was young, I assumed that all dads had their pictures in magazines and that people always wanted to pose with them in restaurants or get their autographs. It was our normal. It was only when I became much older, though, that the whole paparazzi thing became a nuisance.”

  “And yet you chose the same life.”

  He shrugged.

  “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I love acting and I always wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps.”

  “So, was it smooth sailing then? Your connections must have made it easy to become an actor.”

  “You’d think so, right? It was both a blessing and a curse.”

  “How so?”

  “My dad knows people. He knows agents, directors, everybody who’s anybody in the business. So it wasn’t difficult for me to get auditions, but I had to do the work. I had to prove I could act. When that started happening, other actors would get jealous and say things like, ‘Obviously, he’d get that role because of who his father is.’ It was so infuriating because I knew I could act. I knew I was good and I have always worked hard for what I wanted. I’m sometimes the first on the set and the last to leave.”

  “How did you respond to all that negativity?” Dana asked as she took a bite of her salad.

  “I worked hard. Set out to prove I wasn’t just looks and a famous name but that I had the talent to back that up. It seems to be paying off. My career has really taken off. My plan is coming together.”

  He paused and reached across the table for her hand. “Dana, I want you to be part of that plan; a part of my life. Will you give me a chance to prove to you that I’m the kind of man you can respect?”

  Dana was shocked. How had they moved so quickly to this place? He was asking her to be a part of his life and he had said it with such solemnity it almost felt like a marriage proposal. All through dinner, she had been planning to tell him that she could not date him. Yet every time she thought about a future that did not include him she got a terrible, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. No, she had to give him a chance.

  She slid her hand into his. “Yes, Robert,” she whispered, “I will.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Robert and Dana left the restaurant and walked the streets of Naples hand in hand. The rest of the night was spent talking and laughing as they recounted stories of their childhoods, their families, their careers, and shared their goals and ambitions.

  Robert felt like he was on a high. He didn’t think he would get any higher that night even if someone took him up to Mt. Vesuvius. He wanted this woman with every fiber of his being. He wanted to make her his forever. At some point, he had decided to confess to her that he had orchestrated getting her there to shoot the commercial with him. He was just waiting for the right moment to tell her.

  Eventually, they made it back to the hotel. As they walked through the hotel doors arm in arm, Dana glanced at her watch. Her eyes widened.

  “Oh my, it’s ten minutes past one.”

  She covered her mouth with her hand and an excited giggle escaped.

  “I need to get some sleep, Robert. The shoot for the commercial starts early and I don’t want to have bags under my eyes.”

  They had just reached the hotel elevators. He glanced across at her. Her face was glowing with excitement and she looked so beautiful. He was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to envelop her in his arms. He pulled her to him.

  “I don’t think there’s any chance of me getting any sleep. I’ll be awake all night thinking of you,” he breathed against her cheek as his heartbeat raced.

  At that moment, the elevator announced its arrival. They got in and, to Robert’s delight, were alone in the car. The need to taste Dana’s lips was palpable. His face made a slow descent towards hers, but before his lips could make contact two of her fingers shot out and stopped him.

  “Not yet. This is just the first date, Mister. You don’t get to first base quite so fast,” she announced, breathlessly.

  Robert swallowed hard and gave a shaky laugh.

  “Who would’ve thought that I’d fall for the one supermodel with old-fashioned values?”

  “Hey,” she playfully punched his arm. “Are you complaining?”

  �
�No. I actually consider myself lucky to have met such a gem.”

  She smiled and ran a finger along his jaw line. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  That reminded him. There was something he needed to confess. “Uh…Listen…there’s something I need to tell you…”

  At that moment, the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Giuseppe Assante entered.

  “Roberto, Dana. Are you two preparing for tomorrow’s shoot?” he teased in his deep Italian-accented voice as he selected his floor.

  “Preparing for…what do you mean?” Dana asked as her brow wrinkled in confusion.

  “The shoot tomorrow. You do know that you two will be in the commercial together don’t you?” Assante persisted.

  Dana’s gaze swung between Assante and Robert with pendulum-like precision.

  “The commercial? Together? But Bobby, you told me you were shooting a scene for a movie, not a commercial.”

  Robert felt beads of sweat break out on his upper lip. He looked down at his shoes and wanted so badly to kick himself in the head. Actually, he wanted to kick Assante in the head but quickly recognized how unfair that was and shifted back to self-loathing instead.

  “Um…I didn’t exactly say that,” he mumbled.

  “You lied to me?”

  “No.” He rubbed the back of his neck and avoided her gaze.

  “You knew all along that we were shooting this commercial together, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” he breathed out. Actually, it was my idea.

  He finally allowed his eyes to travel up to meet hers. Just as he feared, there was utter contempt in their depths. She closed her eyes and shook her head. When she reopened them a second later, the feelings of betrayal he also saw there pierced his soul.

  “I can’t believe I was so stupid to fall for this deception. You are such a liar and a player. All of this elaborate show of wanting to get to know me was just a ploy to get me into bed wasn’t it?”

  The elevator door slid open at Dana’s floor. Before she vacated the elevator, she turned to him and spoke with a quiet firmness.