I came to the ranch to escape. That’s what I told myself when I packed a single suitcase, tossed it in the back of my car, and drove for seven hours straight without stopping. I needed the silence. The air. The space to breathe again.

Uncle Gary said I could stay as long as I liked—so long as I didn’t mind the smell of hay and horses. I didn’t. It was the first scent in weeks that didn’t remind me of my ex.

I arrived just before sunset. The ranch sprawled endlessly beneath a sky blushing orange and violet, the land stretching out like it had nothing to prove. It...