Their whole morning had been spent with Chris showing his wife where he used to frequent as a boy and a teenager. Stories of his father and their family home were tugging on her heartstrings and she loved hearing how sentimental he got.
That was before he stole one of his brothers cars and as the sun set over their final day in New York, Chris drove them out to the Hamptons.
They stopped along the way to get food and Chris was bursting with excitement to show her where he hoped to move his family when their stint in Washington came to an end.
"I don't think you've said a word today," Chris mused, chuckling at how his wife was so intently listening to every syllable that fell from his lips.
It was nice for both of them to be out of the confines of the Vice President and the Second Lady. Even if it was just for a day.
Grace already knew his agents were panicking back in the city.
"Your life is so interesting," Grace said, a smile on her lips as Chris watched the way the sun danced over her sallow skin.
Every time he looked at Grace, he felt as if he was seeing her for the first time. She constantly took his breath away.
"Not really," Chris chuckled, smiling at his wife, "I was just a boy with an almost absent father when I was young,"
Grace understood where he was coming from. None of the five Cuomo children spoke ill of their father. But, he hadn't been around that much when Chris was growing up.
They had spoken about their own kids, what they would do when they were born and Chris had been adamant about his own involvement. He vowed that his kids would never have to go and look for their father.
"But look at what he did for you," Grace started, having listened intently to the stories about Mario all day, "look at what you all did with the Cuomo name. It started from nothing, your family built houses, ran a grocery store and then came two governors and now a Vice President,"
Chris was silent the lump in his throat growing as he thought about his father. Sometimes he still talked to him out loud in his office. He liked to imagine he was listening and guiding his youngest son in his own way.
"Yeah, yeah," Chris cleared his throat and looked to Grace again, "enough about me. What about your family. You haven't said much about anything,"
Grace cleared her throat, shifting in her seat and smiling sheepishly at her husband.
"Well... we never had money, okay that's a lie," Grace shook her head and looked down at the gearshift, "we had money... but not the money that would get us vacations or nice things,"
Chris turned his body in his seat. Giving her his full attention like she had given him all day.
"My sister was- is- my sister is a brat... she would take what money my parents had for herself and they tried, god they tried to get me things," Grace said, a sad smile on her lips as she thought about her parents.
"It's not their fault. I don't blame them in the slightest," Grace rushed, guilt settling that she may sound like she resented her parents, "I don't even know where they got my sister from. She's nothing like us,"
Shelly and Richard tried so hard to give her everything. The newest clothes, dolls, shoes, whatever her classmates were getting, but no matter how hard they tried, Rebecca got more.
