She took a deep breath and hit the call button without letting herself overthink it.
It rang four times. Five. Merritt prepared to hang up as soon as the voicemail picked up, and then—
“Hi.”
She could tell from the singular syllable that Nora was nervous, too, which weirdly made her feel better.
“Hi,” she said. “How have you been?”
She winced at how stilted she sounded, and there was a short, awkward pause.
“I’ve been good,” Nora said. “What’s up?”
It was clipped and suspicious, which Merritt supposed she deserved.
“Um, not much,” she said automatically. “I just…I heard you were buying a house in Colorado. In Crested Peak.”
Another pause. “Where did you hear that?”
Her tone wasn’t accusatory, just curious.
“Well…I actually live here,” Merritt said, with a sheepish laugh. “It’s a small town. News travels fast.”
“Oh,” said Nora, and Merritt’s stomach unclenched, since it sounded like it was a pleasant surprise. “I knew you were living out there, but I couldn’t remember where. I was planning on letting you know once everything was finalized. I’m sorry that’s how you found out.”
“No, no, it’s okay.” Merritt sat cross-legged on her bed, leaning against the headboard. “So this is just a vacation house?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan. We came out there a few years ago for the holidays and the girls are still talking about it. And next season I’m going from series regular to recurring, so I’ll have more free time, and I want to spend as much of it out of LA as possible.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“So you’ve been loving it there?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I really have been.” She was surprised by how true it felt. “Hold on.” She opened her photo app and texted Nora the picture she’d taken from the top of the mountain earlier that day.
On the other end of the line, Nora gasped in appreciation. “Oh my god.”
“Right?” Merritt said with a laugh. “You might end up here full-time after all.”
“Well, we’re co-buying it with Ethan and his wife, so that might be a little harder to work out long-term.”
“Oh, wow,” said Merritt before she could hide the surprise in her voice. The last time she’d been in touch with Nora, her relationship with her ex-husband had been extremely strained. Merritt must have missed more than she realized, if they were now on good enough terms that they were buying vacation property together. “I didn’t know he’d gotten remarried. How much younger is she?”
Nora laughed, the familiar shocked-amused burst whenever Merritt said something scandalous. “Not embarrassingly so.”
“But you like her?”
“I do, yeah. She’s a gem. The girls adore her, and she and Ethan are great together. He’s been doing really well, too. Maybe the best I’ve ever seen him.”
Merritt gnawed on her bottom lip, debating whether her next question was crossing a line.
“Is that hard for you?”
Nora took a moment before she spoke again. When she did, her tone was reflective, not offended, and Merritt let out a sigh of relief. “Honestly? Yeah, sometimes. I mean, I absolutely think this is the way things were supposed to work out. We’re all much happier now. But it’s impossible not to carry a little bit of resentment that he couldn’t get it together sooner, for us, even though I know it’s more complicated than that.”
“That’s understandable,” Merritt said. “You went through so much with him. It sounds like you’ve been handling it graciously, though. Much more than most people would’ve.”
“Oh, I know,” Nora deadpanned, and it was Merritt’s turn to laugh in surprise. “It’s exhausting being such a fucking saint about everything. When doIget to be the drama?”
