Dan laughed.

“Well, I saw the ad in the Herald the other day,” her mother said. “You should’ve worn your hair down, sweetheart. You look much better with it down. But your trainer looked like a movie star. Here. Have some more brisket.”

Lucy decided maybe she could lie about the work emergency. “Thanks, Mom. I think. I’ll pass on the beef.”

“So let me see if I understand this, pumpkin.” Lucy’s father offered her a slice of bread, which she managed to turn down. “You and Jack La Lanne get to split a hundred grand if you pull this off?”

Lucy sighed, positive that she’d gone over the details with her father at least once. “No. We each get a thousand dollars for each pound I lose, up to one hundred.”

“And that crazy boss of yours is paying for this? Was this his idea?”

“It was my idea to capitalize on the reality-show makeover craze and build a campaign around one person’s success story. I just didn’t know it would be me. That was my crazy boss’s idea, and our client-the Palm Club-agreed to put up the cash.”

Dan cleared his throat. “Uh, Luce? Aren’t you afraid somebody will figure out that you’re… well, you know… the girl who brought down the Pitt State football program? The famous slump buster?”

“Daniel Murphy Cunningham!” Her mother’s fork crashed to her plate. “How could you? You know we’ve agreed never to speak of the Taco Bowl incident in front of Lucy!”

“What in God’s name did he just say?” Mary Fran yelled over the running faucet.

“Hey, it’s not a big deal, really.” Lucy had worried the same thing, so she couldn’t blame Dan for asking. “I’d never do this kind of thing back home, but it happened ten years ago in Pittsburgh. It probably didn’t even make the news down here.”

Dan shot her a grateful look. “I just wanted to make sure you’d thought this through.”

“I told Stephan I wouldn’t do it at first, but then he dangled the money in front of me, and I saw it as my way to escape Sherrod amp; Thorns and start my own company. It was just too good to pass up.”