Tara ducked out of the hotel behind a pair of guests as George helped them into a cab. Outside the hotel the fog had lifted on a sparkling, crisp day, sunlight glinting off gleaming skyscrapers and the bright bay. She grabbed a Muni bus down to the financial district.

The late lunch crowd of returning lawyers and legal assistants streamed back into the neo-deco building that housed the firm of Burke, Wright & Ross. Tara’s heels clicked on the patterned floor. With the holiday decorations down, the grand foyer resumed its more understated elegance, not that anyone bunched in front of the elevators noticed. They all seemed intent on snagging a spot on the next car. Tara felt invisible in the mob. She glanced at her phone. To texts. She just had time to do her errand.

A bell rang, the doors opened, and the crowd surged forward. Tara tried to press into the last available space before the doors closed, angling forward, leading with her left shoulder. As she twisted to face the doors, she realized that her bag was going to be caught. She tried to squish back and met a firm hand at her back.

“Whoa, lady, take that trunk of yours and get the next one,” a male voice suggested.

Simultaneously, she felt her bag turned ninety degrees by unseen hands and looked up through the closing doors to catch the merest glimpse of a gorgeous man in a dark gray suit and blue tie. He had wind ruffled dark hair and a pair of steady blue eyes that made her heart catch. He had seen her need and acted. The doors closed on his grin, trapping her bag against her shins as the elevator rose in a quiet whoosh. Feeling that she’d violated the unwritten code of elevator etiquette, Tara hunched her shoulders, and tried to make herself as small as possible. She felt the ring on her finger where her hand clutched her bag and heard again in her head the stranger who’d warned her—Don’t let your bag get in your way. At the first stop three people exited, jostling past her bag, making her tighten her hold on it.

She stepped out on the eleventh floor. Maybe she should retain Burke, Wright & Ross to defend her bag. Really, her bag had never been a problem before today. A tight squeeze in an elevator was just part of city living, and she’d reached her appointment on time. Her bag had hardly held her back. In fact, it had earned her a grin from a handsome stranger.