Not Your Type (Chris Pine FanFic)

Colorado Gifts

Thankful that the children hadn't woken up at the crack of dawn, Chris hugged his knees and watched with sleepy eyes as the two kids tore into their presents. The energy of the two youngsters was unreal but completely understandable. Beneath the tree was a mountain of presents, most labeled with their names. Chris knew his niece was spoiled; he'd bought her multiple power-wheel cars much to the chagrin of his sister. This was a whole different level.

"We were never this spoiled, right?" Jules asked, pulling lint off her fuzzy red holiday socks. Jules wore over-sized, bright flannel pajama pants and a Texas Tech t-shirt. The rest of the family was dressed similarly, no one had changed out of their sleep attire.

"Not that I remember. Grandma always bought us underwear," Chelsea said as she watched the kids open. Chris chuckled as he imagined a child Chelsea and child Jules opening packages of underwear every holiday.

"Granddad gave us cash," Jules said softly. Both stilled, caught in a deep thought. Sensing Chelsea's slight sadness Chris wrapped his arm around her, squeezing her just a bit. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he sighed. 'This is perfect,' he thought. Glancing up his eyes met Susie's. Her stare was sharp. He tried to smile, but she didn't smile back. Instead she looked toward the packages on the ground around Chelsea's feet. 'It's not there,' he tried to communicate to her without speaking. Out of consideration of Chelsea's mother Chris had chosen to carefully tie the white ribbon on the Tiffany's box and put it into an empty drawer in the dresser in the guest room.

"Alright, alright enough of this. If we sit here and wait on the kids this will take all morning. That ham smells delicious and I don't want to wait until four in the afternoon to eat it," George, with a surprising amount of energy, spoke. "Let's get on with it. Start opening."

After a little hesitation the aunts and uncles began to open their few gifts. It was clear to Chris that there was an unspoken agreement among the older members of the family when it came to gifts. None of the adults had large amounts of packages, the numbers were not even equal to the number of family members sitting in the room. Sam and Rebecca were unwrapping Chris' presents in unison. Shyly, Rebecca looked up at Chris. She was an older woman, pushing into her sixties, with graying blond hair. It was obvious she wasn't blood related, she was far too quiet. George and his brothers were quite loud. "You didn't have to get us anything," she whispered. Chris shrugged, he knew that was true but as Chelsea had stated the night before, this was the best part. The diffident excitement in Rebecca's eyes was enough reason to pay his assistant a little something extra to gather gifts and ship them overnight. The woman gingerly placed the wrapping to the side, revealing the small black box. "Oh my goodness," she murmured before she even opened it. 'The word Chanel must have distracted her,' he thought smugly. Chris knew he had done well. She pulled the beautifully dyed scarf out and held it for everyone to see. With the exception of the kids, the entire family had stopped unwrapping and watched the couple unwrap Chris' gifts.

"Well now I want to know what he got me!" Jake said, shuffling his gifts until he found his.

"Find your Chris gift," he instructed the family.

"Do you see what a ruckus you've caused?" Chelsea leaned against him and whispered.

"I'm sorry," Chris whispered back, though he wasn't. The entire Carter clan was merrily pulling at the poorly wrapped packages. Each man had received an Armani tie. Chris reminded himself to thank his assistant later. She had realized that they could use their connections. Chris got the ties for free.

"Good Lord Almighty," Jeannie mumbled, pulling Uncle Chris' tie from his hands, "This thing probably cost more than you make a month. Feel it, Chris. Feel it. You'd better not spill a thing on this." The two Chrises exchanged looks, the elder rolled his eyes.