The sun radiated in the cloudless sky and beamed down on Keir's hunched-over body as he plunged his fingers into the mineral-rich soil. Sweat streamed down his back in rivers, seeping into the waistband of his vibrant orange basketball shorts that complimented his caramel dermis bronzing from the countless weekends he spent in the garden of his house. Cruciferous vegetables flourished around him in the cedar-raised beds. It wasn't his garden although it was in his backyard. He tended to it as if it was he who planted those first seeds—with love, care, and hope. But it wasn't.

"Farmer Keir!" The jovial voice cut through the silence that had blanketed him for hours.

A subtle smile formed on his face before he glanced over his shoulder to witness her approaching form. Tie-dyed crocs donned her feet juxtaposing the polka-dotted baby blue and white sleeveless midi dress she wore. Her hair was held out of her face in a satin tie, curls that were once bouncy in the morning now fell loosely down her back.

"Hydrate, please," Chloe demanded with the remnants of the smile that ignited on her face when she called him. She handed him the bottle of water plucked out of the fridge after parking her coupe in the driveway. "Heat strokes aren't pleasant."

Keir twisted the top from the bottle, "I was going to take a break in an hour." He tipped the bottle to his pursed lip letting the chilled water course over his tongue as the sweat that didn't get trapped in the rim of the backward baseball cap rolled down the side of his face dampening his beard. "Anyway, what are you doing out here? I thought I was meeting you at your parent's later."

She disdained the hour-long drive that ensued to get from New Orleans to his house. Few people lived around him but those that did reside there valued their quiet which was why there were no stores in Chatoyer Parrish, just a gas station thirtites before you reached any of the estates.

"That was the plan." She said, shielding her eyes from the sun's rays. "But Jean wanted some more pictures for the listing."

"Oh." He sounded, slowly screwing the top back on the bottle.

"What?" Chloe's shoulders slumped as his eyebrows bunched and a smile left his face. "You changed you're mind again."

"I didn't." He absentmindedly turned the bottle letting the water flow to the opposite ends as his conflicting thoughts pingponged in his mind. "I just love this house but... I know it doesn't make sense to keep it. Our life and my business are in the city and I won't have the time to keep coming out here."

He looked over at the white two-story house with his emerald shutters and wraparound porch that set in the middle of an acre of lush greenery and a border of trees blocking our the world. Three years ago the adobe with not as modernized as it is now but...they put in the work. Sweat equity. He drew up the plans for the renovations and she added the intricate decorations to make it feel like home and it felt like such every weekend she came to visit. But now it was just a mausoleum of memories and a reminder of things he would never have. Selling it felt like he was accepting defeat, giving up on all those dreams and plans he once had but he couldn't keep holding onto the past if he was going to have a future with Chloe. The notion of no longer having the deed to the property still stung her heart and gave him pause but it was the right move to take.

"Babe," She soothingly spoke taking his hand in hers. "If you want to keep it. You can keep it. There's no limit to the number of properties one can own but there is such a thing as squatter's right so keep that in mind." She lightly chuckled at her own words, and he only smiled. "I know this house has sentimental value but..." She paused, slipping her hand out of his, and tucked a sleek clump of hair behind her ear as the sun danced across the diamond in her engagement ring. "We're getting married next year and you can't let her house go what am I supposed to think?"

Keir's eyes widened at her words as the pace of his heart quickened. "I'm so stupid." He shook his head at himself for not thinking about how his inability to let go of the past was making her feel. "I'm sorry, Chloe." He claimed both her hands and closed the space she put between them. "I didn't think about how it made you feel and I apologize for that and I should have because you are the woman that I love."

"Do you?" She whispered the question as someone was listening in on their conversation and would tell the world of her uncertainty. "Do you love me?"

"Yes." He quickly said as if it was a fact known to all, even the birds that glided in the sky above them. "I love you, Chloe St. John." He held their interlocked hands to his chest as she peered up at him tentatively. "Don't ever doubt that. I love the way you make a list before doing a task but never go back to cross anything off it once you complete it, the way you get hyper-focused while researching properties for your clients remembering those small details that most people would overlook, the way you take up the duty to host parties and celebrations for you family because even though its chaotic it makes you happy to make them happy and we both love our big, crazy family and can't wait to add to the madness with our own babies."

She clung to his hands tightly with a mist of tears growing in her eyes as he continued, "You're going to be my wife and the mother of my children and we're going to take some more pictures for Jean so this house can be sold because you mean more to me than this house and what it stood for."

He released her hands to cradle her face, "Nothing's coming between us. Not a house. Not a garden. Nothing. It's you and me. Okay."

She nodded and said. "Okay."

Keir smiled down at her before they passionately kissed in the place where he'd another woman that he loved with every essence of his soul. And it was true he loved Chloe St. John. He didn't lie. He gave an honest answer to the question she asked him. He loved the woman whom he'd been to twenty states and eleven countries with. He saw a future with her and would do everything in his power to see it come to fruition.

But if the question was different. If she had asked him something else  he knew he wouldn't have been able to answer it with as much conviction and that worried him. He was in love with the woman of his present and the ghost of the one from his past and he didn't know how to change that. He didn't know how to remedy that but thankfully his past stayed behind him.

Do you think Keir needs to sell his country house if he's going to have a future with Chloe?

What's the question that would trip him up if she asked it?