Page 141 of The Fall Classic

Lucas and Coop come into the locker room from finishing their own training right as I’m heading for the showers. Lucas is laughing so hard, he’s hunched over and has to stop. Coop puts a hand on Lucas’s shoulder, finishing whatever story has my twin laugh-crying.

For a moment, I want to go over. Ask them what they’re laughing about. But I’m stuck in my own head, too busy wondering what I should be doing to do something, already.

“Logan,” Coop calls out when he spots me. “We’re all hanging out at my place tonight. Lee and I are cooking. Scottie’s doing a coffee bar. You and Lukie are on dessert duty.”

“Got it,” I say, as if being a fifth wheel is all I’ve ever wanted.

Once I’m in the shower, I close my eyes and let the hot water pelt me. I can’t tell if I should be trying to get to know my other teammates or focusing on my own family. I don’t know if I should be apologizing to Georgie for going out or staying in to talk to her. I don’t understand how to be a brother and a friend and a boyfriend and a teammate and a pitcher, all at the same time.

Suddenly, I’m back in the booth with Georgie in Mullet Ridge, and we’re trying to figure out the meaning of “The Road Not Taken.”

I’ve never understood the narrator better.

How can I go down so many roads at the same time?

This question is the reason I hold on so hard to everything.

If I loosen my grip, I don’t think I’ll lose everyone else.

I think I’ll lose me.

***

I FaceTime Georgie while Lucas and I are making Oreo cake pops.

Okay, Lucas actually FaceTimes her while I stand just past the view of the screen.

Yes, we’re trying to see if she can tell us apart.

The phone is propped up against the backsplash and angled up at Lucas, who’s rolling the mixture of crushed Oreos and frosting into balls

I’m off camera, but I can see her beautiful dimpled smile appear the second she answers. She’s in her apartment with a beige cable-knit cardigan wrapped around her. When I checked the weather in Mullet Ridge this morning, it said it was a high of fifty-eight degrees. Peak sweater weather.

“Oh, hey!” she says, beaming.

“Hey!” Lucas says. “How are you?”

“Fine.” Georgie tilts her head. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Sorry, Lucas, I’m missing something. Did Logan ask you to call?”

“Dang it!” Lucas says, angling the phone toward me. I laugh and start rolling out balls of my own to put on the cookie sheet.

“Told you, bro,” I say.

“When did you know?” Lucas asks Georgie.

She shrugs. “Immediately. You don’t look that much alike.”

“Tell that to our teammates,” Lucas says. “Only Jake, Coop, and Rojas can tell us apart. Everyone else has to watch us pitch.”

“They’re crazy,” Georgie says. “No offense, Lucas!”

Lucas chuckles. “I’m not sure how I could take offense at that. Logan’s hideous.”

I knock Lucas’s hat off his head, and he grumbles as he scoops it off the floor.