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

“So Richard at least left you a forwarding address?” Ben’s dad asked.


“Actually, he didn’t,” Ben murmured. “Fred got the address for me. When I told him it had gone to Jason by mistake, he looked up the address again. He said I must have transcribed the numbers and made me write it down and read it back to him twice.”


Jason was so proud that none of the family embarrassed Ben by correcting him. He’d say something later in private.


“You mean the rat bastard didn’t have the courtesy to let you know where he’d moved to?” Abruptly Charlie turned red and offered Jason’s mom an apologetic smile. “Sorry. That’s how we’ve always referred to him.”


“That’s quite all right,” she assured him. “If someone did that to any of my children, I’d call him or her a lot worse than that.”


“Good for you, Mom,” Fred chimed in. “The rat bastard.”


“Oh, you didn’t care for Richard either, Fred?” Ben’s mom smiled her approval.


Chapter 37