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

Well, there was no accounting for tastes.


He entered the lecture hall and took a seat, eager to learn whatever it was Dr. Hewitt had chosen for today’s teaching plan. Jason hadn’t been scrambling for an excuse when he’d told Putnam Dr. Hewitt’s TA had come down with a stomach bug. Sometimes the god of serendipity did look kindly on him.


It was still light when Jason got home from his last class. He paused before turning into his drive, admiring the split-level ranch he’d bought when the hunches he’d played in the stock market—as part of his master’s thesis—had paid off. The house sat on an acre of land, surrounded by oak trees, and behind it a willow grew beside the stream that ran along the property line.


Chapter 15