Chapter 3His tongue burned from all the spices, but the small pastries he’d saved for last helped soothe the worst of it away. Joe called them pastelitos, and everybody seemed to love them as much as Sullivan did. The filling was cream cheese and some kind of fruit he couldn’t identify, but its sweetness countered the pork he’d savored every bite of the way. At the first taste, he’d wanted to toss aside the fork and gobble it down in one fell swoop. The weight of Mama Maria’s gaze on him, as well as a little bit of common sense, forced him to take it slow.
He was comfortably full now, more sated than he could remember being in a very long time. Heat radiated from his belly, and he had the urge to loosen his belt another notch to make room for it. Good manners drove his hands to his lap, b
