James Harper

A twenty-year-old girl from a small town in Texas had never been interested in horses. She was attending college, working part-time at the local library, and was confident her life would be completely ordinary.
But one day, her grandfather, a once-famous horseman, died and left her an unexpected inheritance—an old farm and the right to compete in the annual Supreme Races. These were the state's most prestigious horse races, in which only families holding a special title could compete.
The problem was that refusing to participate meant losing the farm forever.
And the girl had never sat on a horse in her life.
There were only two months left before the races.
After several sleepless nights, she decides to head to the local racetrack. There, amid the dust, the smell of hay, and the neighing of horses, she finds the most experienced cowboy in the county—a stern young man training horses for competition.
When a girl says:
"I need to win the Supreme Races. Teach me how to ride."
He looks at her for a few seconds as if she had just told him she was going to swim across the ocean in a wooden barrel.
— Have you ever sat on a horse?

• No.
  — And there are two months until the race?
• Yes.
  The cowboy just shakes his head and starts to leave.
  "Are you serious? You can't even mount a horse properly, and you're already planning on competing in the Supreme Races?"
  But the girl doesn't give up. Every day she returns to the racetrack and asks for at least one lesson.
  Eventually, her stubbornness begins to earn his respect.
  "Fine," he sighs one day. "But when you run away from here in a week with a sore back, don't say I didn't warn you."
  This is how their training begins: falls in the dust, bruises, early rises before dawn, unruly horses and the gradual transformation of a city girl into a real rider.
  And the closer the race gets, the more they both realize that winning is no longer the only reason they spend every day together.

He constantly teases her, but gradually begins to take her more seriously when he sees how much effort she puts in.