Ben Haggerty is devastated when he returns home from work to discover his lover of eight years has gone off to complete his master's degree at another college -- and left no forwarding address. Not only has Ben chosen Rick over his beloved family, but he's supported his boyfriend both financially and emotionally the entire time. Unable to remain in their shared apartment, Ben moves and spends a miserable holiday season alone. With the New Year, however, he's determined to make a fresh start, so he manages to obtain Rick's address and sends him a card asking if Rick ever plans to return. Somehow, the card winds up in the wrong mailbox.<br><br>Jason Prescott is a genius, having obtained his first master's degree at twenty-one and now working on his second. When he receives a card in error, he returns both the card and a card of his own to be courteous, expressing his hopes Ben can get in touch with his boyfriend. This begins a correspondence that leads to friendship, and ... the start of something more? Jason introduces Ben to his family and reunites him with his own.<br><br>But will Jason, who's even smarter than Rick, be satisfied with someone as ordinary as blue-collar Ben feels himself to be? Or will Rick, realizing what he's let slip through his fingers, manage to persuade Ben to take him back?

Always, Ben

Now, what kind of card to choose for Mr. Haggerty? On the one hand, Jason’s parents had raised him to be respectful of his elders, and given that, Mr. Haggerty deserved something a little more serious. On the other hand, he needed something to raise the man’s spirits. On the thirdhand—


Eventually, Jason decided to go with a conservative “Thinking of you” card that happened to have four Lab puppies of various colors in a Radio Flyer wagon. Then he sat there, tapping his pen against his front teeth, trying to come up with something that made sense.


This afternoon, the card you sent to the woman you’re missing so much arrived in my mailbox. I don’t know how that happened—


Well, he was pretty sure he did, but he was too polite to tell the old guy he might be losing it.


I’m writing to let you know this so you won’t think your sweetheart is deliberately ignoring you.


Chapter 12