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

And the postmark was from Wooster. He was so excited to see it that he fumbled with the envelope, tearing it, and then stared at…Wait, twocards?


He recognized the card he had sent to Rick, and his hands shook so hard he dropped them both. Rick must have been really pissed to send the card back to him. Although why include another card?


Ben left the one with the single black Lab on the floor, picked up the one with the puppies, and opened it.


“Oh, goddamn!” Someone else had read what he’d written to his lover. Ben felt his cheeks heat up. God, he was so embarrassed.


Well, no point in pretending whoever it was didn’t know what an ass he’d made of himself. He started to read what had been written inside the card.


He wasn’t “Mr. Haggerty”. That was his dad.


This afternoon, the card you sent to the woman you’re missing so much arrived in my mailbox.


“What?” Ben picked up the torn envelope. Was the postmark even legible? He blew out a breath. He could read it.


Chapter 14