Page 59 of B-Side

Epilogue

Grace

Two years later

Ozzy and Evie were about to be parents for the second time in the same day.

They were having twins, and Evie had delivered one and was about to deliver the second. There were quite a few of us in the small waiting room, waiting for the announcement. They gave us a private room so that Alec and David wouldn't get hassled, but it was tiny, and our family was large, and we ended up sitting on each other's laps and some of us standing.

Alec sat in a chair in the corner, and I sat on his lap. I was in the chair by myself at first and Alec was standing next to me, but he moved to sit there with me when the waiting room started filling up. I didn't mind. I preferred to be on his lap right then.

He and David were near the end of a four-month North American tour, and it had been a few weeks since I had seen him in person. This wasn't a scheduled trip home, but the band had three days between cities, and the boys decided to use the opportunity to come home and meet the new twins.

Alec had only been at the hospital for a half-hour. He and David had come straight here from the Houston airport.

"When do you have to go back?" Jenny asked, looking in our general direction since Alec and David were both sitting in this corner of the room.

"Tomorrow morning," Alec said. I shifted when he spoke because I wanted to make sure he could see his mom, but he put his hands on my lap, holding me in place. I glanced at him with a smile and settled onto his lap again. "We have to get back to Miami for some press stuff before the shows there."

"How much longer till you get some time off?" someone asked from across the room.

I wasn't looking that way, so I couldn’t see who it was, but it was a female.

"Three weeks," David said. "We wrap up in Charlotte, and then back home forever!"

"Not forever," Audrey said. "Till the next tour."

"But that's TBA, so it feels like forever."

"How is it being out there on tour?" Grandma Laney asked.

"It's wonderful and terrible all in the same week, in the same day—all in the same ten minutes. There are extreme highs and lows. It's like a rollercoaster ride that lasts four months."

"That's insane," Cody said.

"I'm glad you got to come home for the babies," Jenny said. "Even if it's only for a day."

Alec tightened the grip he had on my waist, giving me a squeeze and causing me to look back at him and smile.

"We're glad too," David said.

"And only three more weeks to go," David's wife, Stevie, said.

"We've been playing arenas on the weekends and then we go make appearances at these small-ish churches on Sundays. We'll set it up where we lead worship for them—churches of a thousand or less."

"Who's we?" Billy asked. "I thought it was just Alec doing that stuff."

"It's Alec who writes it," David said. "But I've been joining him for some live shows during this tour. It's new for me. I've only been playing that kind of music for a few months."

"He's amazing," Alec said. "I love having him do that with me. It feels like home up there when we're doing those gigs." He looked at David. "We have more fun doing the free church gigs half the time than the arenas with sixty thousand."

"We really do," David said, nodding. "All that excitement at the arenas makes me exhausted."

"I'll bet you two are ready to get home for the night," Jenny said. "We'll get you back there to see Ozzy and the babies as soon as we can."

"I can't believe we're having another set of twins," Stevie said.

"Yeah, what are the chances that Ozzy would have twins?" Cody asked. "A third-generation? Does that ever happen? Is it one in a million?"