He studies me and lets out another one of his new broody sighs. “Ginny doesn’t need a big gesture, just tell her how you feel. Well, no, actually first, you need to convince her to speak to you again.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot. Good talk.”

Mav walks through the door. “Honey, I’m home.” He plops down and reads the room. “What’s going on?”

“Heath is gonna ask Ginny to go steady.” Rauthruss smirks.

“Fuck off,” I tell him but smile. Dammit, I should have known better than to ask him. Nothing is ever taken seriously around here.

“I take it talking didn’t go over so well?” Mav asks with a knowing smirk.

I flip him off. “Are you guys going to help me or what?”

Maverick claps his hands together. “Let’s brainstorm on the whiteboard.”

“We don’t have a whiteboard,” Adam points out.

Maverick shakes his head, smiling. “Real oversight, minion. Task one, find something to write down ideas.”

Surprisingly, Adam does get up and appears to search for something to write on. Maverick goes to the fridge and grabs four beers and then hands them out.

Adam comes back with a scrap of paper and a pen. “All right, ideas to ask a girl out. I feel like I’m back in middle school.”

“I would have guessed you started more pre-K age,” Rauthruss says and twists the cap on his beer.

Adam flips him off and then looks to me, poised to write down our ideas.

“You’re on board with this?” I ask him.

He shrugs. “If it’s what she wants. Besides, it’s going to be fun as hell to watch you try to pull this off.”

Maverick takes the lead and I let him. For as much shit as he talks about his dad, I can see the family resemblance. When he sets his mind to it, he’s a good leader.

An hour later, we’ve got a handful of ideas and they’re all pretty awful. Rauthruss is the straightforward one—take her to dinner, buy her roses. Maverick is elaborate and has so many suggestions only about half are being written down. They range from renting out a movie theater to hiring a Mariachi band and everything else you can imagine in between. Adam has some good insight since he knows Ginny the best, but none of his suggestions feel right either.

I’m probably overthinking it. I don’t know anything about love or being a good boyfriend, but I know Ginny and I know that I’m better when I’m with her.

“Well?” Rauthruss asks once we’re out of new suggestions and beer.