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, did he want to send Ben’s homophobic mother a card or a letter? And just how thick did he want to lay it on? 16


Jane Haggerty turned the lavender envelope over and over in her hands. Who could be sending her a card from Wooster?


If it had been from Greenedale, she’d have hoped it was her boy. She still looked for cards when Mother’s Day and Father’s Day rolled around, even though Richard had made it very clear that Benjie no longer wanted to have anything to do with either her or his father.


But Wooster? They didn’t know a soul from that town.


Well, staring at the envelope wouldn’t open it. She slit the flap and took out the card.


“With deepest sympathy?” No one in the family had died. Was this some kind of sick joke?


Thank God she knew Benjie didn’t live in Wooster, otherwise she’d have to deal with the awful dread something could have happened to her son.


She fumbled the card, finally opening it.


Chapter 34