“How much do you know about college football?” Jamar asked.

“About as much as I know about dairy farms. And I ain’t from Wisconsin.”

His lips tipped up in a half grin. “Actually, California has the most dairy farms.”

“Are we trying out for Jeopardy! or coming up with a workout regimen?”

“The second one,” he said. He brought his elbows up on the table as well and folded his hands. “There’s this weeklong scouting event in college football called the Combine. College players who hope to make it onto an NFL team are given a battery of tests, both mental and physical. It’s their chance to show NFL scouts what they’re made of. My goal is to be within the top five best times in each test that’s used at the Combine.”

“What kind of tests?”

“Things like the forty-yard dash, bench press, vertical jump. There’s a long list of evaluations and each will require me to be in top form. I can run the forty in seven-point-four-nine seconds, but I need to shave at least one-point-five seconds off that number if I want to have a chance.”

“That’s insane,” Taylor said.

He shrugged. “Welcome to the NFL.”

Taylor sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She studied him, taking in the determined set to his strong jaw. He was serious about this.

“I’ll be honest,” she said. “I don’t get why you would hire someone you saw in a YouTube video. There are trainers out there who would kill for the opportunity to work with you.”

“Are you saying you’re not one of those trainers?”

“I’m not saying that at all. I’m just trying to understand your motives here. Why me?”

“I already told you. I like your training style. That hardcore, in-your-face approach is what I need to kick me into high gear.”

The more he explained, the more she was convinced that he really was legit.

Taylor decided to be up front about her lack of a degree. The one thing she did not need right now was to get excited about this job and then have him back out of the deal because she hadn’t graduated from some fancy university.

“Before we go any further, you need to know that I’m not a certified dietician,” she said. “Actually, I don’t even have a degree.”

He regarded her with a quizzical frown. “So you are trying to talk me out of hiring you?”

“No! No, I just don’t want there to be any confusion here.” She picked up a potato chip and tossed it back into the basket. “Not too long ago, I was promised a position—one that I am one hundred percent qualified for, I might add. But when the people who wanted to hire me learned that I didn’t go to college, they backed out of it.”