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knife and tried one
more swipe managing to feather out the line.
    Maybe Gwen would be there. 
    He’d never seen her at anything before, so there was no
reason to think she would be there this time, but he couldn’t stop himself from
wondering if Gabbi’s golden-haired sister would make an appearance. 
    Now that he'd officially met the mysterious sister he'd
heard very little about over the past three years he'd known Gabbi and Heath,
he had a hard time thinking of his friends without the thoughts and questions
he had about her hijacking his mind.  How soon he would see her again, was
at the top of that list.
    Joe finished skimming over the last screwhead and plopped the unused mud out of his tray before laying the lid on the bucket
and stomping it in place with his boot.  He collected his tools and his
empty coffee cup before heading downstairs where he rinsed the cup in the
kitchen sink along with the tools, setting everything in the dish rack to
dry. 
    His yawn echoed through the silent house as he went to the
still intact downstairs bathroom and started filling the tub for his
unappealing evening bath.  He planned on starting early tomorrow to get
the brunt of his work done before the heat of the day made working in the
unfinished house too unbearable.  Plus, then he would have plenty of time
to get back here and get another coat on the bathroom.  This taking a bath
thing was awful.
    He turned off the faucets and stripped off his work clothes,
separating the items into a divided hamper before easing down into the hot
water.  It was probably a little too hot, especially considering the
temperature outside was still close to ninety even at nearly midnight, but as
much as he hated a bath, he hated a lukewarm bath even more. 
    He quickly scrubbed his hair and body and climbed out of the
tub, opening the drain as he went.  He caught his reflection in the mirror
as he toweled off.  He'd need to shave tomorrow so he was cleaned up for
the party.
    It shouldn’t matter.  Before Saturday night he would
never have given a second thought to the way he looked when he went to Heath
and Gabbi’s, but now was a different story.  Now he knew his favorite
woman in the world had a beautiful and intriguing sister who, if what Heath
said was correct, was single and just as feisty as her sister.
    He’d been ready to find a partner for what felt like a very
long time, but until Saturday night he hadn’t met a woman he would think twice
about.  Now, suddenly he was struggling to keep his mind on anything
besides a woman he’d just met.  One he knew very little about, but that
would have to change. 
    The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to get to
know Gwen.  See if she was all he hoped she would be.  Find out if
maybe she was his chance to have what his friends had.  Add in the
potential for Heath and Gabbi to end up as not just his friends, but maybe even
his family, and it was more than worth exploring.
    He finished drying off and wrapped the towel around his
waist before walking through the house checking the locks on the doors and
resetting his coffee maker to brew a pot before he got up in the morning. 
When everything was in order, he went back upstairs turning off lights as he
went. 
    Joe took one last peek in the bathroom to check his
work.  Not too bad for a guy who learned how to finish drywall last week
during a ten-minute tutorial with one of his contractor buddies. 
    He shut that light off too and crossed the hall to his room,
cringing at the feel of the sub-floor under his bare feet.  No matter how
much he shop vac’d it still felt gritty.
    After fishing a pair of boxer briefs out of his dresser and
flipping off the light, he used the area rug he spread on the floor of his room
to dust the debris off his feet before climbing onto the king size bed covered
with only a fitted sheet.  The upstairs tended to feel stuffy, even at
night with the central air running.
    He sprawled across the bed,