Wearing My Halo Tilted by Stephanie Perry Moore Read Free Book Online

reason alone I hated his profession. There was no loyalty or stability in coaching.
    He looked at me through the mirror, and said, “If I’m fired what will we do then? NCAA coaching jobs are hard to come by, especially for black coaches.”
    I hated to admit it, but he was dead on. Shoot. Approximately eighty-five football scholarships are given out per school, with about sixty-five of those going to black players. Yet, Division I schools averaged two black coaches out of a staff of twelve or sometimes fourteen. Pitiful. In my opinion, black boys needed to protest or go to historically black colleges. They’d make the necessary changes then.
    After waiting for me to give an answer, he said, “You can’t support us. You can’t even support yourself.”
    He said that last comment sort of under his breath, but I heard him. Any other day that little crack might have hurt my feelings, but not this time. My career was doing better and so were my emotions.
    Jumping on his back, I playfully taunted, “I’m glad you mentioned that because I’m about to get seventy-five-hundred dollars from this production company that is turning Luv Right or Git Left into a play! And in addition to that, my agent wants me to go on tour with the book for the summer. How do you feel about that?”
    Sliding me off him, he said hastily, “Go on tour with the book where? For how long? And who’s gonna keep the kids? No, you can’t do that. I know you told her no!”
    Overall, Dillon was a good husband where the finances were concerned. He never badgered me about how much money I spent. He just asked that I keep the checkbook balanced. It definitely felt like his money was mine.
    But I was sick and tired of him saying that I couldn’t take care of myself. Though he was right; I couldn’t. I wanted more for me. I had two girls for goodness sake. How in the world was I going to dig deep and tell them that they could be all that they wanted to be? I was settling for less in my own life. I wanted to spiff up my career a notch. I had to take opportunities when they came, and Dillon surely wasn’t holding me here. Actually, the conversation confirmed that I needed a break from him. He was too controlling.
    â€œI didn’t give her an answer earlier. But now I’ve decided I’m going on the tour,” I said boldly, as I turned on the shower for it to steam up so I could get in it.
    I could tell by his stern body language that he wasn’t in agreement with me. I didn’t care though. Nothing was holding me back now.
    He quickly turned the water off. “Girl, we got two young babies. I’m working a full-time job. You’re trying to take them on tour with you to some play? I’ve been to them plays with you. There’s too much going on night after night. No, you’re not going to be on the road like that. Not my wife, not my kids. That’s that. You need to call whoever you need to call back and tell them the answer is . . .”
    He rolled his eyes and looked at me so that I could finish his statement, but I couldn’t finish it because the answer he wanted me to give to Tina was not the one she was going to receive. I had made up my mind. I was sick of him.
    Yeah, he was the head in this relationship, but he wasn’t acting like someone worth following. Therefore, in my mind he had defaulted his right to tell me what the heck to do. If I was wrong, I was just going to have to deal with it, but I kind of felt like I was right. Though I couldn’t tell Tina yes. I didn’t know what in the world I was gonna do with my girls, because I agreed with Dillon on one thing. Out on the road, living out of a suitcase, and jumping from hotel-to-hotel was not good for the girls. We were probably traveling on a bus and that was no place for toddlers. I needed to come up with a solid plan.
    Dillon went over to the closet and started throwing dirty clothes