Phoebe concealed her relief. She hadn’t done that kind of math for years, and she didn’t remember a thing. “Don’t judge a book by its cover, Mol. For example, if people judged you only by appearances they might decide you were unfriendly and a little bit snobbish. Both of us know that’s not so, don’t we?” She wanted to make Molly think, not to antagonize her, and she tried to take some of the sting out of her words with a smile. It didn’t work.

“I’m not a snob! I’m a perfectly nice person with dozens of friends, and—” She gasped.

Phoebe followed the direction of her stricken gaze and saw Pooh pulling a bedraggled stuffed monkey from under Molly’s bed. She quickly disengaged the animal from the poodle’s mouth. “It’s all right. Pooh didn’t hurt your toy. See.”

Molly’s face was scarlet. “I don’t ever want that dog in my bedroom again! Never! And it’s not mine. I don’t play with toys. I don’t know how it got there. It’s stupid! Throw it away!”

Phoebe had always been a sucker for lost souls, and her sister’s rejection of the obviously well-loved stuffed monkey touched her in a way nothing else could have. At that moment, nothing could have made her send this confused, frightened young girl away.

She casually tossed the stuffed animal to the foot of the bed. “I’ve decided I’m not sending you back to Crayton. I’m going to keep you here in a public school for the fall semester.”

“What! You can’t do that!”

“I’m your guardian, and I certainly can.” Scooping up Pooh, she walked to the door. “We move into the condo next week. If school doesn’t work out, you can go back to Crayton for second semester.”

“Why are you doing this? Why are you being so hateful?”

She knew the child would never believe the truth, so she shrugged. “Misery loves company? I have to stay here. Why shouldn’t you?”

It wasn’t until she reached the bottom of the staircase that the full implications of what she’d done hit her. She was already buried under problems she didn’t know how to solve, and she had just added another one. When was she going to learn not to be so impulsive?