Page 122 of Inferno

“Taylor?” Caitlyn looked inside the truck, saw Taylor waiting in the backseat and frowned with displeasure. “What’sshedoing here? I thought she was dating that band dork.”

“She was.” Manning smiled. “And now she’s dating me.”

“What!” Caitlyn exclaimed with shocked outrage. “You can’t be serious, Manning.Her?She’s—”

“My girlfriend, and I’m not gonna let you disrespect her like you did before.” Not wanting to embarrass her in front of Michael and Quentin, Manning softened his tone. “Look, Caitlyn, you’re cool and all. But I’m not interested in you like that. Never really was, to be honest with you. I’ve been crushing on Taylor for some time now, and thankfully she feels the same.”

“But—”

“HEY!”

Everyone turned to stare as Taylor stepped from the truck and rounded the rear fender, her eyes narrowed menacingly on Caitlyn. “He said he’s not interested,” she snarled. “So back the hell off.”

Manning’s jaw dropped as Caitlyn’s face flushed beet red.

As Michael and Quentin exchanged incredulous glances, Taylor tucked her small hand into Manning’s and smiled ever so sweetly. “Can we go now?”

Smothering an amused grin, Manning nodded.“Absolutely.”

He held the back door open for her,thenducked into the truck behind her.

Lips twitching with suppressed laughter, Michael nodded to Caitlyn and murmured, “Nice meeting you,” before climbing behind the wheel and starting the engine.

Caitlyn turned hopefully to Quentin.

“So you and Manny, huh?”At her stiff nod, he shook his head lamentingly.“Too bad.We could have had something special.”

“Could have?”

“Yeah.See, Manny’s like a brother to me, so messing with you would force me to break one of my rules, which I simply can’t do.” Quentin gave her one last admiring once-over,thenwagged his head with a look of genuine regret. “Damn shame.”

Caitlyn stood there looking dumbfounded as he hopped into the passenger seat, then winked and waved farewell as Michael backed out of the driveway. When the two best friends grinned at each other, Manning knew that they’d get a good laugh over this episode for many years to come.

But none of that mattered right now.

All that mattered to him was Taylor.

On the way to her house, they held hands and smiled at each other like they were the only two people in the truck.

And when Michael and Quentin began crooning the sappy lyrics to “Puppy Love,” Manning and Taylor could only laugh and secretly agree in their hearts.