Heartless

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of cursing.

Wishing Well Ranch is symbolic of home and belonging. The ranch is owned by the Eaton family and is primarily run by Cade Eaton. The ranch also includes the main house where Harvey Eaton lives, as well as Summer Hamilton and Rhett Eaton’s home and Cade’s home, where he lives with his son Luke. The property therefore houses the entire extended family and lets them share the same general space.

Furthermore, Cade’s red house grants Willa a new sense of acceptance and belonging. When Summer first takes Willa to meet Cade, they “drive across the farm and pull up in front of the most picturesque red house with white trim” (17). Moved by the picturesque setting, Willa contrasts the Eatons’ lives with her own past, as she has had a peripatetic, unplanned lifestyle up until this point. She has no plans to settle down at the novel’s start, but her response to the ranch and Cade’s house foreshadows the fact that life on the ranch will change her outlook drastically.

In the recent past, Willa used to tease Summer “about living in the middle of ‘buttfuck nowhere’” (13), but the more time she spends at Wishing Well Ranch, the more she realizes that “the view out near Chestnut Springs is breathtaking” (13).