When in Rome: A Novel

Noah’s sisters pick Amelia up in their truck to go to Hank’s, the local bar, but she is forced to sit in the trunk bed as there are only two seats in the cab. As she is jostled around in the back of the truck, Amelia feels one of her stress-induced migraines coming on, so she takes some of her prescription-strength ibuprofen out of a bottle in her purse. Amelia learns that the two oldest sisters, Emily and Madison, are teachers on summer break and Annie owns the flower shop next door to the pie shop. Amelia is nervous when she sees the whole town is at Hank’s and she fears for her safety, but the sisters assure her everyone in town is harmless. Emily announces to the whole bar that they need to treat Amelia with respect and help her stay under the radar, and everyone does exactly as she says. Amelia has fun with the Walker sisters. She tells them about her dream of going on a Roman holiday and feels shocked when none of them have seen an Audrey Hepburn movie. They order another round of beers as Noah and James arrive, and Amelia is surprised at how drunk she feels so suddenly. When the women and James leave to dance, they ask Noah to keep an eye on Amelia. Suddenly, she realizes that instead of taking her ibuprofen, she took an extra-strength sleeping pill she only uses in emergencies. She feels sleep overtaking her.

From the moment Noah sees Amelia in the bar he knows something isn’t right with her. He and Annie sneak Amelia out of the bar and rush her to the local clinic after hours, where the doctor assures them she will be okay once she sleeps off the drugs. As Amelia sleeps on the bench of his truck, Annie begs Noah to try to keep Amelia in town, seeing how much her brother is already developing feelings for her. Annie mentions how their grandmother always wanted someone like Amelia for Noah, and hearing about his grandmother breaks Noah’s heart. They take Amelia to the Walker sisters’ shared house, where Noah ends up staying the night to make sure Amelia is okay. Amelia wakes up briefly when she’s alone with Noah and confesses to him how lonely and scared she is, causing Noah to realize how much he cares for her.

When Amelia wakes up she hears the Walker sisters talking about last night and how Noah stayed up all night to make sure she was okay. Annie drives her into town—she tells Amelia that she named her flower shop after her late mother and helps Amelia pick out a bouquet for Noah. Later, Mabel finds Amelia standing frozen outside the front door of the pie shop and asks her why she’s really in Rome. Amelia opens up to Mabel and admits that she doesn’t love her career and feels disconnected from her music. Mabel encourages Amelia to recognize that she is the only one in charge of her future.

Amelia brings Noah the flowers to thank him for taking care of her and apologizing for the inconvenience. She teases him about how he buys a bouquet from Annie every day and brings up his mother, which makes Noah go quiet. Thinking she’s made Noah angry, Amelia turns to go, but Noah admits that he just isn’t an open person especially when it comes to his family. They talk about what Amelia told him last night and Noah says he wants her to stay longer to get some rest, and he promises that he will even be her tour guide around Rome if she stays.

Noah struggles with having Amelia at his house knowing he should avoid her. She gives him a list of things she wants to do while in Rome, including doing something exciting she wouldn’t be able to do any other time. Amelia tells him that she called Susan again and told her she was staying in Rome much to Susan’s chagrin. Noah crosses “do something exciting” off her list. He sees Amelia getting emotional so, as a distraction, he tells her about his parents, who died in a hiking accident when he was 10, leaving him and his sisters to the guardianship of their grandmother. As they talk, he can feel the two of them getting closer and recognizes he must put some distance between himself and Amelia if he wants to get out of this situation unscathed.

Noah goes to play cards with his sisters at the pie shop, a weekly tradition of theirs since he returned to Rome three years ago. The sisters tease him about his crush on Amelia, noting that they’ve offered to let her stay at their place if Noah kicks her out. Noah tells them not to get their hopes up because he has already informed Amelia that they can’t get together. He remembers how his relationship with Merritt ended and knows it would break him if the same thing happened with Amelia. To distract himself from his sisters’ teasing and his interest in Amelia, Noah gets drunk.

Amelia gets nervous when Noah hasn’t returned by midnight, but when she sees truck headlights, she worries that Noah will think she’s waiting up for him. As she tries to make herself busy, Amelia hears a crash in the living room and comes out to see Noah picking up the shards of a broken lamp with his bare hands. Amelia stops him when she sees he’s bleeding and tries to find a first aid kit. Amelia notices that Noah is flirting with her and that he is more honest about his feelings toward her when he’s drunk. Noah asks to kiss her, but Amelia only plants a kiss on his forehead, knowing that anything else would be dangerous for the two of them. She still feels more and more drawn to him with every touch.

Noah wakes up to an extreme hangover, a mountain of regret for everything he did last night, and the smell of smoke coming from the kitchen where Amelia is attempting to make pancakes. One of the things Amelia wanted to do before leaving Rome was to learn how to make Noah’s pancakes, but he told her that his recipe is a secret and that she needs to learn to make pancakes on her own. Amelia mentions what happened the previous night and they both pretend not to be romantically attracted to one another.