But when she was grabbed by the arm and twirled around, her heart shrunk in fright. Breathing rapidly, she jerked her head up to stare into Noah's surprised face.

"I heard the door slam and thought you were a burglar!" he said. He released a silver baseball bat from his hand and it dropped to the concrete floor with a clunk. "If I hadn't recognized you, I could've hurt you, Amanda."

Her eyes darted to the baseball bat and then lingered on Noah's blazing stare. "I'm sorry for sneaking in--the door was unlocked."

His eyes softened and he let go of her arms. "Oh, I thought I'd locked it."

"Look, I-I can talk to you later. It was probably a bad idea for me to drop by and disturb you--"

He noticed her sudden embarrassment and decided to let her off the hook. "Amanda, you're not disturbing me."

She gazed into his warm hazel eyes. "I stopped by the main house this morning--I wanted to talk to you about something--but Maria told me you had left early."

"Uh-huh, I left pretty early. Didn't sleep well last night after the fire."

"Me neither."

"Come on, I'll show you the rest of my workshop." He touched her elbow and guided her through a wide doorway to their left.

"Wow, this is huge," Amanda said, "And all the windows must give you some good light."