Tumbling Hearts (The Dusty Brooms #2)

Chapter 1

It’s almost time to head on set.

Ray stands alongside the other members of the Dusty Brooms backstage. This will be their first television appearance, on none other than the famous Mike Douglas Show.

They’d been back in their home state of Michigan for not even a week before the Brooms’ manager, Dennis, received a call with the invitation.

And so, shortly after, the band was in the skies on their way to Philadelphia.

It was Ray’s first time on a plane, and honestly, it shook him up quite a bit.

Thankfully he didn’t vomit. But it was alright, being able to sit in first class with Carol on one side, and Gene on the other.

Presently, Carol is waiting for the show to start in the studio audience.

Gene is right beside him, though. Gene, the rhythm guitarist of the Dusty Brooms and Ray’s sole songwriting partner.

Gene looks so handsome today—but doesn’t he always?

—with his shaggy shoulder-length black hair and charming smile.

Gene’s got on a dark red blazer with some glittery sequins lining the lapels, reflecting the dim backstage lights every time he moves.

But what gets Ray melting most of all are Gene’s eyes—hazel, almost looking brown in the darkness, looking right at him with such tenderness.

Ray gives him the same smile back, one meant only for Gene.

“You nervous?” Ray asks.

“Honestly, yeah,” Gene says, shrugging. “We’ve never been on TV before.”

“Well, at least the crowd will be smaller than at one of our shows,” Ray offers.

“Not really, no, not in the slightest,” Gene chuckles.

“Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they won’t be there.

People all over the country are going to be watching us—thousands of them, all from their own homes.

Way more than a show. Fuck, I’m shaking, actually.

Feel this.” Gene’s nervous laughter continues as he holds out his hand for Ray to see, trembling up a storm.

“Wow, yeah, you really are shaking.” Ray reaches out and grabs Gene’s palm, rubbing the middle gently with his thumb.

“Everything’s gonna be fine. Think of what you said—you can’t see those people, so out of sight, out of mind, right?

They won’t be actually watching the program until next week, anyway.

Besides, I’m here for you. We’re all here for you. ”

“Aw, look at you two, holding hands again,” Santiago, the Brooms’ lead guitarist, says from behind them. It makes Ray jerk—an explosive heat rushes to his cheeks, and he lets go of Gene’s hand.

“Hey, I didn’t tell you to stop!” Santi laughs.

“You were teasing us, though,” Ray says, pouting.

“So what? It’s funny.” Santi smiles, his big bushy moustache covering his upper lip.

“Well then,” Gene says, snagging Ray’s hand back. “Santi’s right; you didn’t need to stop. C’mon, comfort me, Ray.”

“I just was!” Ray laughs. His heart is thudding madly. His palm sweats under Gene’s touch. More than anything, he’d love to continue holding Gene’s hand and give him soft, gentle assurances.

“Comfort me more, then,” Gene says, giving him a smirk.

“Okay, okay, fine.” Ray shakes his head. He rubs Gene’s warm palm again with his thumb. “You’re going to do great, Gene. We’re all going to be fantastic, aren’t we?” He looks toward Santiago and the rest of the Brooms.

“Hell yeah, we are!” Santi pumps his fist in the air.

“You guys are a riot,” Pat, their drummer, says with a chuckle. Right next to her is their bassist, Stefan. To nobody’s surprise, Stefan says nothing, merely giving the group a thumbs-up.

“You guys are on in T-minus five…” one of the stagehands says, motioning to get all their attention.

“Right,” Ray says, while reluctantly, finally, letting go of Gene’s hand.

From behind the curtain, Ray can hear him—Mike Douglas himself—telling the crowd, “And now, here with me tonight are—the Dusty Brooms!”

That’s our cue.

Ray is out first, stepping through the curtain and past the threshold onto the stage.

Gene follows slightly behind him, along with the rest of the band.

Cheers and applause from the studio audience create a white noise, and bright, warm stage lights cast their glow onto the chairs surrounding the host. Ray takes a seat next to Mike Douglas himself, Gene plopping down next to Ray, while Santiago finds a seat on Mike’s other side.

Pat sits on Gene’s other side, and Stefan quietly lowers himself on the last chair, next to Santiago.

“Welcome, Dusty Brooms!” Mike says. Ray looks upwards briefly, noticing the microphones hoisted on long, black metal bars. “So let’s see here… right next to me, I believe, is Raymond Roderick.”

The camera in front of the stage pans to Ray’s face. He gives it a smile. “Yup. I’m the frontman, lead singer. But you can just call me Ray.”

“Alright, Ray. Then next we have…” Mike continues.

Ray sees the camera pan to Gene. “Um, Gene Hillard. Rhythm guitarist,” Gene says.

Mike doesn’t say more, letting the camera panning speak for itself and giving Pat the cue to introduce herself next. She adjusts the sleeves of her blazer, then flicks her head to move her brown bangs out of her eyes. “Pat Taylor. I’m on drums.”

“Then on my right we have…” Mike says, and a second camera moves toward Santi.

“Santiago Arteaga. Lead guitarist. Though just Santi is fine, too.” His mop of curly black hair almost blends in with the background of the set, aside from the curved, golden lines forming large patterns on the walls.

“Good, good. Then last but not least is…”

The camera pans further, onto the last member of the Brooms—the quiet young man with long, platinum blond hair. “Stefan Grzeskowiak. Bassist.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Mike says, then he directs his attention back to Ray. “So you all are from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I think that’s pretty remarkable. Most of the musicians I know that play your style of music come from around New York, California, or even Britain.”

“Well, we get a lot of our influence from those bands,” Ray says, clasping his fingers together and resting his hands on his lap. “And there have been other bands from Michigan that inspired us, too. But… I guess we were the lucky ones to manage to break through.”

“It’s not just luck, I would say,” Mike comments. “Your music really stands out.”

“Yeah, give us some credit here, Ray!” Santi laughs. “We’ve worked our a—wait, I don’t think I can say that word. Worked our tails off!”

“Alright, alright, yeah.” Ray chuckles. “We’ve done a lot.”

“In such a short timespan too,” Mike adds. “Your first album came out not even a year ago.”

“For sure.” Ray nods.

“You have some rather catchy songs that resonate a lot with your listeners. What does your writing process look like?”

“It all starts with me and Gene.” Ray smiles, turning his head toward his best friend. “I come up with some lyrics, then Gene finds a riff to go with it. Or vice versa.”

“Yeah,” Gene says. “And it’s always just the two of us. I mean, during a songwriting session. But when we come together, we like to be alone in the room.”

Ray’s cheeks heat up again. It’s not a secret how they write songs alone together, but when Gene says it in such a way, on broadcast television, it stirs up an emotion Ray tries to keep hidden.

He looks into the studio audience, finding Carol sitting in the front row.

It’s a bit hard to see her behind the bright stage lights, but he gives her a smile once they make eye contact.

She smiles back at him sweetly. Nerves flutter in his gut.

“That’s interesting,” Mike says. “What you have is sort of like a Lennon-McCartney thing going on—a duo writing the songs for the band.”

“I guess you could say it’s like that,” Gene says, smiling.

“Though, we all know what happened with the Beatles, even as great as they were,” Mike says. “I know you are still new, but do you think you could learn from the Beatles’ mistakes, and stick together?”

“Eh, I don’t know if I’d really call what happened with the Beatles a mistake,” Ray says, taking over for Gene.

“Granted, I don’t know the whole story. But they’re completely different people than we are.

The relationships between their members was something totally different than what we have.

So, in the end, maybe breaking up was better for them in the long run.

But that’s not the case for us. We’re all really close, especially me and Gene. ”

He glances at Gene, noticing his cheeks flush red.

“Could you see yourselves still doing this five years from now? Ten? Even twenty?”

“Definitely,” Ray says matter-of-factly.

“Of course, especially if it’s with Ray,” Gene adds. His words make butterflies flutter in Ray’s chest.

“How about the rest of you?” Mike turns his head, addressing the rest of the Brooms.

“Y’know, I don’t think Ray’s ever asked us that,” Santiago says with a chuckle. “What if we didn’t want to keep this up for that long? What if I actually wanted to do something with my art degree?”

“Y-you don’t mean that, do you, Santi?” Ray’s eyes widen. “I thought you wanted to be in a band more than anything.”

“I do. I’m just messing with you.” Santi sticks his tongue out. “If Ray and Gene wanna keep the band going, you can count me in, too.”

“Same for me,” Pat chimes in. “Before the Dusty Brooms, I used to be in another band. And ever since I left, they’ve broken up, last I heard.

But I don’t really see that happening with the Brooms. I never went to college like these guys—all I’ve ever wanted to do was play music, be a professional musician. They’re helping me live the dream.”

“That’s wonderful,” Mike says. “And what about you, Stefan?”

Ray has been wondering the same thing. If there was any member he was unsure of, it’s Stefan. And yet, Stefan nods. “I like it with the Brooms. I just follow their lead. If they’re sticking together, I’ll stick with them, too.” That’s a relief.

The rest of their interview goes on like that, lighthearted and answering questions about being a band and making music.

Ray had watched episodes of the Mike Douglas Show before and heard him ask other musicians harder questions, such as about interpersonal relationships, drug addictions, and the like.

He’s no stranger to asking the tough shit.

But perhaps Mike is being easier on the Brooms since they’re a newer band. Ray appreciates that.

Soon enough, their interview wraps up, and the Dusty Brooms move to another area of the set where they’ll play a song. While it takes them a moment to get situated, it won’t matter when it finally airs—the boring downtime will be cut on the tape when the episode broadcasts next week.

With Ray’s microphone in front of him and the rest of the Brooms with their instruments, a stagehand gives them their cue to start.

Pat clicks her drumsticks and sets them off.

Gene’s guitar riff opens the song, followed by Stefan’s powerful bass and Santiago’s lead melody—performing their debut single, ‘Fly High’.

While not their most popular song, it’s certainly one of the most special to Ray.

This song is the very first one he and Gene wrote together.

The first original they ever performed live, the first one they ever recorded.

And now, it’ll be their first song on television, too.

Ray dances for the cameras, shaking his hips and swaying to the beat.

Contrary to Gene’s nerves, Ray feels excited knowing so many eyes will be watching him at home on their TV sets, thousands and thousands of them.

He smiles as he jives, coming closer to the mic to sing the verse:

“A love so beautiful, so divine,

Goin’ outta my way to make her mine.

Footsteps dancin’, to and fro,

Oh baby, I can never let her go.”

He dances some more, as Santiago leads the instrumental section with a solo. After a few more bars, Gene walks up to Ray, huddled up close to him to sing the chorus together into the same mic:

“She flies me up like a plane, higher and higher.

There ain’t no way I can deny her.

‘Fly high, baby, fly away with me.’

She’ll be the star of all my dreams.”

Their faces are so close, their cheeks brushing against each other.

It sends butterflies throughout Ray’s whole body.

The camera zooms in on them while they sing, too—catching their intensity on tape.

To think, everyone at home will be seeing this.

Gene and I, together. It stokes a flame in Ray’s chest, and when the chorus is over, he makes eye contact with Gene.

His best friend smiles back at him, strumming his guitar, the sequins on his blazer sparkling.

Ray knows, without a doubt, he truly would love to perform like this with Gene for the rest of his life.