Showing results by author "Kandi Steiner" in All Categories

Keep Me is a collection of five full-length novels from best-selling authors. This collection includes: A Stone in the Sea by A. L. Jackson, Intention by Ava Harrison, On the Way to You by Kandi Steiner, Hero by Lauren Rowe, and The Secret to Dating Your Best Friend's Sister by Meghan Quinn.

When I declared sports medicine as my major and every man narrowed their eyes, that saying proved true. It was true when my ex-husband decided I'd give up my career when our daughter was born. And again when I divorced the Chief of Police in our small town, and he made it painfully clear that I could leave him, but I would never be free. Landing the job as the new athletic trainer for Stratford's high school team is my chance to start over. And walking into a male-dominated sport and staff, I'm ready for the challenge. I'm not ready for Jordan Becker.

I tried to stay away from Tyler Wagner, putting an entire country between us. But when his sister’s wedding brings us back to the same town, to the same house, I can’t avoid him, no matter how hard I try. He’s always there, his dark eyes bewitching, luring me into their depths. The memory of us pulls me under like a rip current, and when he flashes that smile, I lose my breath, along with my will, unable to escape his grip and find the surface. 

Everyone knows not to fall in love with your best friend. But when your best friend is Michael Becker, it’s impossible not to. He’s everything our town knows a Becker brother to be: devastatingly handsome, charming as a thief, and the icing on the cake - a sentimental musician who’s never without his guitar. And he was mine. At least, that’s what I’d convinced myself. Our bond was born in elementary school, strengthened by circumstance and the promise to always be there for each other, no matter what. And the best thing about my life was being friends with Michael Becker.

On the northeast side of town, there is a house. The house was once magical, filled with love and joy and plans for the future. Inside its walls are many things that belong to me - my books, the china from my mother on my wedding day, the beautiful cage once home to two birds, now empty, just like me. And a man. A man who also belongs to me. A man I no longer wish to keep. A man who, no doubt, has not slept, though the sun is rising. Because the house where he waits is where I laid my head to rest every night for eight years. Until last night.

The plan is simple: a brand-new, hot, preferably funny, definitely single male will fill one of those seats for every Bears game at Soldier Field. And I'll fill the other. I can't think of a better way to use the season passes I'd bought for my ex-husband. I am a woman of plans, and this one's foolproof. Until Zach Bowen offers to be my practice round.    

Noah Becker is nothing but trouble. That's what Mama told me when I was a kid, kicking his pew in church and giggling at the games we'd play. It's what the town said when his father died and the Becker brothers went wild. And it's on repeat in my mind the day I walk into the whiskey distillery where he works to buy a wedding gift for my fiancé.

I swore I would never work at the whiskey distillery with my last name on it, that I would never be a part of my father's legacy. But when I graduated with my art degree and realized there were no jobs, the devil appeared, and I sold my soul, agreeing to work in the family business if he'd give me the art studio I'd always dreamed of.

I knew the fork in the road was inevitable; it was the decision I never wanted to make between choices I didn't know I had. And I love them both. My heart is destined to exist in two equal halves - one with each man. But one half beats stronger, the vein running deepest, and holds my choice in silence long before I know it for myself. The realization of what I have to do, of the heart I have to break, just might break mine, too.  

What makes you happy? That was the question Emery Reed asked me the day we met, and I couldn't give him a single answer. I could have said my dog, or my books, or yoga - but I just stared. And then, I got in his car. It was crazy to take a road trip with a stranger, but after years of standing still, he was my one-way ticket to a new life, and I wasn't going to miss it. We shared the same space, the same car, the same hotel room - and still, we were strangers. One day we'd be laughing, the next, we wouldn't speak. Emery was surrounded by impenetrable walls, but I wanted in.

It's crazy how fast the buzz comes back after you've been sober for so long. Whiskey stood there, on my doorstep, just like he had one year before. Except this time, there was no rain, no anger, no wedding invitation - it was just us. >It was just him - the old friend, the easy smile, the twisted solace wrapped in a glittering bottle. It was just me - the alcoholic, pretending like I didn't want to taste him, realizing too quickly that months of being clean didn't make me crave him any less.

Wren Ballard is trying to find herself. She never expected to be divorced at 27, but now that the court date has passed, it's official. The paperwork is final. Her feelings on it aren't. Spending the summer in a small mountain town outside Seattle is exactly what she needs. The peaceful scenery is a given, the cat with the croaky meow is a surprise, but the real kicker? A broody neighbor with nice arms, a strange reputation, and absolutely no interest in her.

When Sarah Henderson walks into my life, I tell myself she's off limits. She's my student, 16 years younger than me, and my boss's niece. It doesn't matter that I see the same pain reflected in her eyes that I have in my own, or that the dead organ better known as my heart kicks to life when she's around. I've been here before, and I know how this ends. It's been two years since I fell for the last woman I knew I couldn't have, the one with the ring on her finger that I chose to ignore. Two years of trying to overcome that heartache when Sarah slides into my life.

I had trusted him, I had loved him, and even though my body had changed that summer, he'd made sure to help me hold on to who I was inside, regardless of how the exterior altered.