Cowboy and the Convict by Janice Whiteaker

Some days life is a little messy.
Other days, you get arrested by the small-town cop who loves to lecture you on all the ways you could be doing better.
Officer Peters has never been Janie’s biggest fan, but when he picks her up for a warrant she didn’t know she had, he lays into her.
And, for the first time in years, she breaks. Slinging tears and snot all over the holding room, expecting him to run with his tail between his legs.
He doesn’t. Instead, he sits down and calmly helps her come up with a solution to her problems.
A solution that plants her square in the middle of the widowed, single-dad’s life.
That’s when she discovers that, while her life’s messy, his is just a mess.
Luckily, she knows a thing or two about cleaning up a mess.
What she doesn’t know, is how to keep from noticing that for the first time in her life, someone else is looking out for her. Taking care of her. Making her feel safe. Special. Maybe even loved.
But giving love and accepting it are two different things.
And she’s never been great at the latter.