James “Jamie” Reynolds was certainly not one who liked to show weakness. Even when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, he still maintained that tough and determined exterior. It was never, I have cancer, but they say I have cancer and I’ll be glad when I prove them wrong. Deven had always been close with her dad, but she felt they had grown especially close during those car talks when she was taking him to see Paul. He talked about her mother and how they’d always known they would be together, even when she cheated during an especially drunken night and had an affair. Sure, they had taken a little break to heal from the deception, and another one when they found out the affair had conceived Kennedy, but the two were like magnets, always finding their way back to each other.

One of the very last conversations they’d had in the car had been quieter than usual. Deven knew the entire process was taking a toll on her dad. But for the first time, he appeared completely broken.

“I tell you, karma is something,” he had mumbled completely out of the blue.

“Karma? What karma, Daddy?”

“Mistakes you may have made in the past,” he said with a shrug. “Things you’ve done that you wish you could’ve done better. People you wish you could’ve treated better.”

The comment was random, but he hadn’t bothered elaborating. For a moment it was quiet again as Deven drove and Jamie stared out the window, having retreated into the recesses of his own mind. Then, when the silence had stretched for another fifteen minutes, he said, “You’ll promise me something?”

“Of course, Daddy.”

“You’ll promise to take care of your mom for me?”

Deven had hated hearing those words. It meant he had done what she’d tried to keep from doing for the entire year: give up.

“Daddy, don’t talk like that.”

“Promise me, Deven. I need to know you’ll take care of her. And your sister,” he added after a brief hesitation.

Deven remembered finding that last bit a little strange. Not unusually so because her dad had pretty much always been welcoming to Kennedy, despite the circumstances under how she was conceived. It was the fact that he’d never seemed to go out of his way to do so.

Instead of agreeing, Deven had begged him not to talk like that because he would always be around. Then she had cranked up the music so they could duet to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. And though they were horribly off key and transposed a few of the lyrics, it was a reprieve from the inevitable.