12 Hours In Paradise Read Online Free

braids, one on either side. And your cowgirl hat stopping just above your ears. Your pistol. Do you carry it in a holster on your left or right side?”
    “Ha-ha. Very funny. Your turn. Who would you invite to dinner?”
    “Annie Oakley,” he murmured. “I am seriously impressed.”
    “You’d invite Annie Oakley?”
    “No, no, no. Let me think for a minute.” He took my hand and pulled me back to the sidewalk, where we began to walk again. Farther and farther away from my hotel with each step. “I think I would invite my grandfather to dinner.”
    “Your grandfather? Why him? You can invite anyone dead or alive. You could invite George Washington.”
    “Why would I invite George Washington? He has wooden teeth and probably couldn’t eat the steak and corn on the cob I’d be barbecuing.”
    “But why your grandfather when you can talk to him anytime?”
    “Ah, but that’s just it. I can’t talk to him anytime. In fact I’ve never talked to him in my life. He died when I was a baby, and my parents were stationed overseas at the time. He never got to meet me.”
    “Poor grandfather. That’s so sad. What would you guys talk about?”
    “I’d ask him about my father. What he was like as a child. As a teenager. As a young man. What made him the person he became?”
    “What if your grandfather doesn’t know what made your dad the person he became? Parents don’t always know everything about their kids. And besides, don’t you think that people just become who they’re supposed to be? That they’re just born that way?”
    “Is that what you believe?”
    “Kind of. I mean, I don’t really think I am who I am because of what my parents have done. I think I’m just me.”
    “Did they teach you manners and responsibility?”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Did they love you and shelter you and fill you with confidence?”
    “Yes and no. They love me and shelter me. But they don’t always fill me with confidence. Sometimes just the opposite.”
    “Everything they’ve done in the past has in some way shaped who you are right now.”
    “I don’t agree. Maybe some of the stuff but not everything. Chester and I are so different, and yet we have the same parents.”
    “But Chester is a boy and a second child. You’re the oldest, a girl…and a very beautiful one, I might add.” My face flushed hot. “This can account for the differences in your personalities.”
    “Agree to disagree,” I said. “I refuse to believe I’m just a product of my parents…like I’m a ball of Play-Doh these two people molded into a shape. I’ve always known who I was. Sometimes it goes along with who my parents want me to be, and sometimes it doesn’t.”
    “Fair enough,” Arash said. “But I know my grandfather would have some kind of insight into my father that I, as a son, don’t have.”
    “And if he doesn’t?” I asked just as though his grandfather was expected to dinner that night.
    “Then I’ll kick him out of the house and see if it isn’t too late to ask George Washington.”
    “No do-overs,” I said. “Next question.”
    “Next question.” He glanced down at the paper. “‘Would you like to be famous? And if the answer is yes…famous for what?’”
    “This is a trick question. I know I’m supposed to say no, but anyone who’s really honest would say, ‘Hell yeah, I’d like to be famous.’ Who wouldn’t?”
    “There’s no right or wrong answer, so it can’t be a trick question. And?”
    “And what?”
    “If your answer is ‘Hell, yeah,’ you have to say what it is you want to be famous for.”
    “Hmmm…what about a pop singer? Definitely not a reality star.” I looked over at Arash, and he really seemed focused on my answer, so I wanted to make it good. “I guess a movie star.”
    “A movie star?”
    “Yup. A movie star.”
    “Do you study acting in school?”
    “No.”
    “Have you ever been in a school play?”
    “No.”
    “Don’t you think you should get started,