Page 47 of The Pumpkin Pie Book Nook

Her stomach clenched. She didn’t want to look. Looking meant reality.

But the tapping came again, and finally, she pushed herself to her feet and crossed the room on legs that didn’t quite feel like hers. She pulled aside the gauzy curtain just enough to peer out.

Tyler stood below, head tipped back, hands cupped around his mouth.

When Robyn’s face appeared in the window, she shook her head immediately, a silent plea for him to go. For him to leave her alone in her humiliation.

“Please,” Tyler called up anyway. “Open the window!”

Robyn didn’t want to, but she couldn’t ignore him standing there like that. Not with people still out on Oak Way, strolling past with mugs of hot cider and scarves wrapped tight against the wind. A few had slowed to watch, curiosity tugging them closer.

Mortification burned through Robyn’s chest. She lifted the window anyway, just a crack, cold air rushing in.

“Tyler, I—” Her voice broke. She swallowed, throat tight. “I’m sorry. I can’t—” She turned away from the window.

“Don’t,” Tyler said, holding up a hand. His voice was firm, not angry. “Don’t go.”

Robyn blinked, confused by the gentleness of it.

“We think you’re an incredible writer,” Tyler said, words clear and certain. “All of us. We’re all fans.”

Robyn’s confusion deepened. “What?”

He stepped slightly to the side, and only then did she see shapes moving in the darkness, and then their faces as they came closer beneath the streetlight glow.

The book club, funneling out of the bookstore and gathering around Tyler. Edith in her navy and white tartan scarf. Mrs. Bishop in her brown wool coat. Mrs. C. with her arms crossed, and no-nonsense attitude. Cassidy, Madison, Kit, and Elsie all smiling and waving up at her.

Robyn was too stunned to speak.

Tyler lifted his phone and began to scroll. “I’m going to read you something,” he called up, and there was a faint tremor in his voice now. “Because I don’t think you believe us.”

He cleared his throat and read the first comment.

“Your writing takes me to another world. Bravo!’” Tyler said, then glanced briefly around the group.

Kit raised her hand, shameless. “That was me.”

Tyler scrolled again.

“That chapter was—no words. I devoured it!”

Cassidy lifted her hand with a grin. “Guilty.”

Another scroll.

“This story is everything I never knew I was missing.”

Edith fanned herself dramatically. “Also me.”

Robyn pressed her hand to her mouth, tears still falling but different now—confused, stunned, something warm cracking through the fear.

These people… liked her stories.

Not faceless follower counts or anonymous hearts on a screen. Real people she knew. People who had brought her cupcakes and cider and laughed with her in the pumpkin pie book nook.

Tyler kept reading, each message a small light in the dark, and each time a book club member claimed it with a wave or a laugh, she was grateful to them for outing themselves tonight, in solidarity with her.

Robyn’s chest hurt. In the best way and the worst.