His Best Friend's sister: The Cohan Billionaire Brothers Book Six

by Layla Holt

  HIS BEST FRIEND'S SISTER

  THE COHAN BILLIONAIRE BROTHERS BOOK SIX

  LAYLA HOLT

  Copyright © 2021 by Layla Holt.

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Contents

  AUTHOR'S NOTE

  ABOUT HIS BEST FRIEND'S SISTER

  1. Chapter One

  2. Chapter Two

  3. Chapter Three

  4. Chapter Four

  5. Chapter Five

  6. Chapter Six

  7. Chapter Seven

  8. Chapter Eight

  9. Chapter Nine

  10. Chapter Ten

  11. Chapter Eleven

  12. Chapter Twelve

  13. Chapter Thirteen

  14. Chapter Fourteen

  15. Chapter Fifteen

  16. Chapter Sixteen

  17. Chapter Seventeen

  18. Chapter Eighteen

  19. Chapter Nineteen

  20. Chapter Twenty

  21. Chapter Twenty-One

  22. Chapter Twenty-Two

  23. Chapter Twenty-Three

  24. Chapter Twenty-Four

  25. Chapter Twenty-Five

  26. EPILOGUE

  About Author

  The Cohan Billionaire Brothers is a series of books that begin with Her wedding, a free Novella that introduces readers to The Cohan family. You can DOWNLOAD IT HERE for free!

  Every book in this series can be read as a standalone as each book focuses on a couple’s love story to their Happy Ever After. However, to get the most out of each book, I recommend that you read them in chronological order.

  HER WEDDING

  HIS SECRET BABY

  HIS SECOND CHANCE

  HIS BEAUTY

  HIS SECRET ROMANCE

  HIS CHRISTMAS ROMANCE

  Megan just can’t. Max is her brothers’ best friend. Yes, all five of them. Her bodyguard, which is as ridiculous as it sounds. And the biggest reason of all. She’s been burned and not too long ago.

  Megan is not the naïve girl who left home five years ago. She’s lost so much, including her ability to love and to trust. All she cares about now is earning her rightful place in the family empire.

  Max Foster sacrificed his love for Megan out of respect for her brothers. He watched

  painfully as she said her vows to another man. He buried his love and did his

  best to move on.

  Real love never dies and Max knows this from firsthand experience, for even though Megan left for Italy, his heart clung to the dream. And now she’s back.

  Again, the timing is all wrong. He has just stupidly agreed to be Nancy’s fake boyfriend to make her ex-boyfriend jealous enough to want her back.

  He’ll keep his word to Nancy and then love the heck out of Megan, as she should have been loved from the very beginning.

  There’s only one problem. Has Megan been bruised so badly that she has lost the ability to love and to be loved?

  Chapter 1

  The constant banging in Max’s office was driving him crazy. His ears rang with the noise even when it went quiet. His shoulders and back hurt more than usual from sitting down for too long.

  Access Security had grown at a faster rate than Max had envisioned and he now found himself stuck in his office busy with admin tasks. He no longer had the time to do field work which had kept him physically active. As the business grew, so had the busy work tasks and the need to plan for the future.

  Hence the banging. Access Security had started off as a bodyguard and protection services company but over the years, Max had identified a niche and intended to shift towards that end.

  CCTV monitoring was a huge industry and the potential was great. Besides, after more than six years of providing security services for celebrities and other famous people, Max had grown weary of it. He was tired of the endless drama and demands from celebrities with inflated egos.

  He’d slowly started to ease into CCTV monitoring with two contracts in the bag already. One was to monitor a celebrity’s home twenty-four seven and the other was for a movie studio under construction. The money was not as great as celebrity bodyguard services but it was consistent and sometimes, it wasn’t always about the money.

  Max left his office and peered into the current control room, a small office that could only fit two desks and a few monitors. He nodded at the two security agents on duty and then walked next door to the new control room.

  It was spacious and could easily fit fifteen desks and just as many monitors mounted on the walls. He was excited about the next phase of the business with its potential for growth.

  “Hey, just the person I wanted to see,” James, the contractor, said. He was in charge of the design of the control room and had the experience of having worked on other security control rooms.

  “What do you think about us moving the screens to this side of the wall?” he said. “I’m worried that the light from these two windows could bounce off the screens.”

  After a ten-minute discussion, Max left the control room and headed out. “If anyone needs me, I’ve gone for coffee at The Aroma,” Max said to his long-term secretary, Liz. “Do you want one?”

  “Thanks but no thank you,” Liz said. “I’m not a coffee junkie like you.”

  “You’re weird Liz,” Max said as he strolled out.

  The Aroma Coffee House was within walking distance of his office. It felt good to be in the warmth of the sun even if the only exposed skin was on his arms and his neck.

  He wasn’t the only person who craved the sun. The sidewalks were full for a weekday with people clad in official clothes striding along. The scent from the coffee house hit him when he pushed the glass doors open and stepped in.

  “Hey Max.” Ella smiled and waved him to an empty table.

  Ella and her husband Jonathan owned and ran the coffee house and before that, it had belonged to Ruby’s parents. Ruby was his best friend Dean’s wife. Yeah. The coffee house had more connections than Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

  “Hey you,” Max said. They exchanged pleasantries before Nancy came to take his order.

  Nancy kept her eyes averted which raised his suspicions that something was amiss. “You’re not looking at me.” He could say anything to her as their parents were next door neighbors and they had grown up together.

  She was like a sister to him, especially because both of them had been only kids in their respective families. She raised her face and Max was taken aback by her red-rimmed eyes.

  “Sit down a minute,” Max said glancing at the near empty coffee house.

  Nancy slumped into the chair opposite.

  “It’s never that bad,” Max said and placed a comforting hand over hers.

  “It is,” she said with a sniff.

  Max’s mind came up with possible causes of Nancy’s distress and discarded each. Had anything happened to her parents, he would have known about it from his mother. She took it upon herself to update him on the happenings of the neighborhood on their regular calls to each other.

  It couldn’t be Nancy herself because she was here at work. “What happened?”

  Fresh tears filled her eyes. “It’s Michael.”

  He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Michael was her on-off boyfriend.

  “He wants space. What does that even mean?” she said dramatically.

  Max fought to keep his facial expression from changing. He loved Nancy with all his heart
but she had a weakness when it came to men. She held on too tightly and pushed them away.

  He hadn’t met Michael but he didn’t blame the man for wanting to back off. He’d tried to tell Nancy to chill, to lessen her intensity but she couldn’t grasp that concept.

  “Maybe it’s not such a bad idea Nance,” he said carefully.

  She looked at him, aghast. “But we’re so good together. He must see it.”

  Sadness enveloped him. She was clearly doing the same thing she always did. The worst thing about it was that Nancy was the kindest, nicest person he had ever met. She went out of her way to help people when she could and she never said a nasty word about anyone.

  She saw the good in people all the time, and that was another of her problems. Max sighed. “I’m sure he’ll come around. If there’s something I can do to help, just let me know.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Actually, there is something you can do to help, Max.”

  “Sure,” Max said.

  “What Michael needs is to value what we have,” Nancy said. “And I’ve thought of a way to help him see how special we are together.”

  “Okay,” Max said.

  She cocked her head to one side. “Can you pretend to be my boyfriend for a little while to make Michael jealous?”

  “What?” Max said, staring at her incredulously. He had expected that she would want him to keep tabs on Michael, sort of like a private eye. “We’re not thirteen years old Nancy. We’re adults.”

  “I know but surely you can see that Michael needs to appreciate me more and what better way to make him see what he has lost, than thinking he has lost me.”

  Max shook his head. It was one thing to help a friend by offering advice but a pretend boyfriend? It was immature and insane. “Sorry, no.”

  Her eyes filled up. Guilt surfaced in his throat. He badly wanted to help her but playing games was not his idea of having a friend’s back. Tears fell from her eyes and she wiped them off with the back of her hand.

  Why had he offered to help? He should have known that whatever help Nance wanted would be ridiculous. An idea popped into his head then. Maybe he could use her silly idea as a way to help her by showing her how not to conduct adult relationships.

  “Fine,” Max said quickly before he could change his mind.

  A huge smile split her face. “Really?”

  “Really but not exactly the way you think. You need some help in that department so I’m going to be your coach.”

  She waved a dismissive hand. “Whatever you want. So, can I drop hints to one of Michael’s friends that we’re together now?”

  A heavy feeling came over him. He was going to regret this. “Okay but remember what I said. The aim is to coach you. Treat me as you would someone you were in a relationship with. Of course, except the romantic physical stuff.”

  Nancy made a face of disgust. “Gross.” She jumped to her feet and rounded the table to hug him. “Thanks Max, you’re the best. Now, what can I get you?”

  “I’ll have a double latte,” Max said, just as his phone vibrated from his pocket. He fished it out and held it up to see the number on the screen.

  He grinned at the foreign digits. It could only be one person. He swiped to answer. “Your Royal Highness.”

  “Drop it,” Jaime said in his characteristic bluntness.

  Max laughed, instantly cheered up to hear from one of the Cohan brothers, who were all his closest friends. They asked after each other’s well-being before Jaime’s tone grew serious.

  “Megan is home.”

  All air left Max’s lungs.

  “For good,” Jaime continued. “She’s left that…” his voice trailed off as he thought of an appropriate word to describe his brother-in-law and failed.

  Max knew exactly how he felt. “Loser.” And that was a kind word as far as Max was concerned.

  The last time he had met Megan had been at Jaime’s wedding and seeing her looking so sad had broken his heart. It had taken everything in him not to wipe off the look of boredom on Luca’s face with a punch.

  As if being next to Megan attending her brother’s wedding was the dreariest thing the man could think of. Then during the reception, Luca had gone out holding a phone in his ear and that had been the last of him that Max had seen him for the rest of the reception.

  Megan had sat a table with her in-laws whom she seemed to be good friends with but her attention had been on the exit that Luca had strolled through. Max’s heart had ached at the loneliness in her eyes and finally, unable to bear watching her, he had invited her to dance.

  For the first time since they had known each other, Max had let down his guard. The words he had whispered into her ear were buried in his mind and whenever he remembered it, he cringed.

  If I was your husband, I’d never let you out of my sight. You’d never have to wonder where I am or what I’m doing. You deserve better Megan Cohan.

  Yeah. His feelings for her were not a secret anymore.

  “Anyway, she’s back home with us,” Jaime continued. “The reason I’m calling you is because she said something that worried me sick. She tried to downplay it but I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  Max’s whole body tensed. Anything to do with Megan mattered to him.

  “Apparently Luca wants her back in Italy and he has issued threats to that regard. What has Megan worried is that these days he is mixed up with unsavory characters.”

  “That is worrying,” Max said, already thinking of ways they could make sure that she was safe.

  “I want to give you a job Max. To guard my little sister. What do you say?”

  “Yes of course,” Max said.

  “I knew you’d say yes but it’s still good to hear you say it. Now, if you could email me the invoice for say two months, I’ll be happy to prepay,” Jaime said.

  “You’re not paying for this, I am,” Max growled. They ironed out a few details.

  Apparently, Megan would be working at Candin Inc and she was staying at the family home in Glen Acres.

  A job became easier when a client’s movements were predictable and because Megan would most likely be at work all day, he would be free to carry on with his other tasks at Access Security. It was perfect.

  “Should I warn her before I start?” Max said.

  “Absolutely not,” Jaime said. “Just show up on Monday morning when she’s supposed to start work.”

  Max chuckled when he imagined how upset she would be.

  “I wish I was there to see it. She’ll be spitting fire,” Jaime said.

  “Yeah, but I’m used to it. Megan will be a piece of cake.” Max had worked on jobs where the studio contracted him to provide protection services to an uncooperative celebrity. They usually cooled off after the initial resistance and he was sure it was going to be the same for Megan.

  The thought of having a legitimate reason to see her every day made him happy. He and Jaime wound up the conversation.

  Max couldn’t believe that he would finally get to live in the same city as Megan. He cautioned himself to relax. Megan was not ready for another relationship and she probably wouldn’t be for a long time. She had endured a bad marriage and needed time to heal.

  But nothing was stopping him from being a friend to her. He would be in her corner and he was glad to have a good reason to be by her side as she started a new life back home.

  “Here you go.” Nancy placed his mug on the table.

  “Thank you,” Max said.

  “I should be thanking you...boyfriend.” Nancy blew him a kiss and left.

  As he stared at her walk away, the impact of what he had agreed to earlier slammed into him. His blood turned to ice. Everyone, including Megan would think that Nancy was his girlfriend. “Dang!”

  Chapter 2

  Megan stood in front of the mirror and stared at her reflection. She narrowed her eyes. Was she dressed too sexily for a first day at work? She had picked a red blouse tucked into a black pencil skirt and ki
ller heels. The combination did things to her self-esteem, making her feel seven feet tall.

  Her long blond curls were held in a ponytail at the back in what she deemed as a no-nonsense style. That was the image she wanted to portray. Megan knew that it was not going to be as easy as she had believed to get the job she wanted, at Candin Inc.

  The reception she had received from her family when she returned home a few days ago had been warm but cautious. Her father though, had worn a wary look from the beginning and when she mentioned the job openings at Candin Inc, he had become icy cold.

  She couldn’t understand why. She was qualified for all of the jobs there. In Italy, she had pursued a Master in Marketing and in Strategic Management. She was an asset to any business.

  The job she had an eye on was to head the office of Strategic Management. Megan also wanted a place on the board like her brothers. She had made sure to dress for the part but now she worried that she looked too sexy.

  She turned away from the mirror. It was time to leave if she hoped to catch a ride with her father. She grabbed her black leather bag and strode out of the cottage, musing over how to get rid of the unlived-in scent in the house.

  Megan froze at the door when she saw an unfamiliar black SUV parked in front of the cottage. While she was contemplating whether to sprint to the main house for help or to remove one heel and use it as a weapon, the driver’s door swung open and Max Foster stepped out.

  The sight of him was so unexpected that all thought flew out of her mind as she stared at him open-mouthed. He calmly strode to the passenger door and stood next to it. Megan’s pulse jumped to her throat. Looking at Max in his perfectly fitted dark custom suit was like being struck by lightning first thing in the morning.

  She couldn’t see his eyes which were hidden by a pair of dark sunglasses but she knew they were trained on her. The thought made goosebumps erupt on her skin. He cleared his throat, jerking her from her thoughts. Embarrassment flooded her.

  Megan couldn’t believe that she still had the stupid schoolgirl crush on Max. Irritated with herself, she matched over to him.