Page 78 of Even Beneath the Stars

"With the music boxes?"

"Yeah… That."

She wants one of the five-thousand-dollars-a-pop music boxes from my father's weird-ass collection. Fucking seriously?

Again—I shouldn't be surprised. Maggie LeClair would take the five-thousand-dollar music box over five-thousand-dollars cold hard cash. Unpredictable and odd. Just like her. Collecting oddities to match her soul.

"Ever since I've moved in," she says. "I've wanted to set them all off at the same time."

Okay—what?

I'm clearly missing something here. Not even sure what I'm expected to deliver in this exchange.

"So?" She stares back expectantly. "Can we do that?"

My eyes search hers, still waiting on the bigger ask. But it doesn't come. Apparently, thatisthe ask—winding up a bunch of vintage music boxes.

My jaw unclenches. Shoulders loosen.

And… yet again, this girl has rendered me speechless. Also, relieved, once her weird request settles in.

Reallyrelieved. All she wants is a little chaos set to music.

I lift an eyebrow, slow and deliberate. "You want me to wind up all the music boxes."

"Yes!" She beams. "Well, we'll have to do it together. It's going to take more than one person if we want them to all play at the same time, or at least all overlap for a few seconds."

Holy shit, she really has put some thought into this. Man, this girl is a trip.

"So, can we?" She looks back at me with wide, eager eyes.

"Like… now?"

"If it's okay… yeah." She pushes herself off the couch, standing over me, grinning like a lunatic. "I'm not joking when I say I've been dying to do it ever since I moved in. Like, every time I walk past them."

"Alright, then." For a second, I forget about my ribs, my doubts, and everything else. I stand.

"This is gonna be so awesome!" She claps her hands, giggling like I just agreed to empty the contents of my father's safe for her.

Christ. She asks for music boxes, and I almost accused her of robbery. The way my brain’s wired, trust always comes with an escape plan.

But Maggie doesn’t want an exit.

Apparently, she just wants to make some noise and see what happens.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Maggie

The grand staircase gleams beneath our feet as we descend, my heart racing with anticipation. The moonlight streaming through the massive windows casts elongated shadows across the marble, but instead of feeling eerie like it usually does at night, the mansion thrums with possibility.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this." I all but skip forward as we reach the main floor.

"Based on your level of enthusiasm," Xave quips, strolling through the sitting room and the kitchen, towards the hallway that leads to the Drawing Room, "I'm gonna assume you don't have a lot of excitement in your life."

"I have plenty of excitement," I retort. "It's just not wild parties in the Smoking Room and threesomes on the divan in the Library."

Xavier laughs. "For the record, I've never had a threesome in the Library." We stop in front of the display cabinet. "I keep threesomes strictly contained to the hot tub." He grins slyly at me over his shoulder as he reaches for the handle.

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