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

He didn’t want to take the time to run down to his study for the letter opener or to dash into the kitchen for the scissors in the junk drawer. Instead, he slid his thumb under the flap and tore it open, doing a pretty good job of mangling the envelope.


This card had a dog sitting on the roof of his doghouse, wearing the goggles of a World War I flying ace. “I was so glad to hear from you!”


As the card says, I’m so glad to hear from you.


No apologies are necessary. I really don’t understand how I could send Rick’s card to you not once, but twice. I can be such a bonehead. The guy I got Rick’s address from told me I must have transcribed the numbers.


Transcribed? Oh, he must mean transposed. His brother Eddie used to get those two confused when they were little.


It’s interesting that you mentioned Look Alike Day. The day this came in the mail, I was doing my grocery shopping—I’m so domesticated it made Rick want to puke.


Chapter 27