Page 52 of Uncoachable

They know her name, they know her reputation for tearing GMs apart, but they’ve never seen her in the flesh.

Scottie stands up and leans over the glass, giving them a sharp, predatory smile.

“Scottie Elise Reed,” she announces, her voice carrying across the quiet ice. “And if any of you miss your assignments today, I’ll make sure your next contract negotiations happen in a dark room with just me and a very sharp pen.”

The team collectively gulps.

Practice resumes with a sudden, frantic intensity.

I keep one eye on Callahan the entire time. He remains precise and calm, but there is a new aggression to his movements. He’s playing better, faster, showing off for the “audience” in a way that is so subtle only someone who has spent weeks studying his patterns would notice.

As the practice goes on, I find myself laughing. It’s a real, honest sound that breaks through the cold air when Leo trips over his own feet during a transition drill. I don’t bark a correction this time; I just shake my head.

“Watch your edges, Leo. You’re skating like a newborn giraffe.”

The players stop and stare at me as if I’ve grown a second head. I can practically hear their internal gears grinding.

Coach Talvi has friends? Coach Talvi is human?

Practice ends with the sharp blast of the final whistle, the air still buzzing with sweat and adrenaline.

Cash slows as he passes me, a grin stretched across his face like he’s been waiting the whole practice for this moment.

“So, Coach… your friends. They staying for the game?”

“Yes, Cash. Now go get changed.”

He leans in conspiratorially. “Is The Shark single?” He jerks his chin toward Scottie, who’s lounging in the stands.

I watch Dean lean against the railing next to her, his calm presence a perfect foil to Scottie’s fire.

It feels like a lifetime ago that Scottie had dragged me to a pre-law mixer, insisting she’d found the “only man in the tri-state area with a brain faster than mine.”

She had introduced us, and the three of us had become an airtight unit almost instantly.

Dean had been the one to look at my first professional contract and tell me exactly how much I was being undervalued, while Scottie was already reaching for her phone to fix it.

We didn’t just grow up together; we built our worlds together.

I look back at Cash. “Find out yourself, Cash. If you’re brave enough.”

Nico and Leo snort as they skate past. Even Brick cracks the smallest, tightest smile before disappearing down the tunnel.

One by one, they vanish into the locker room until only Callahan remains. He lingers at the boards, resting his forearms on the top rail, eyes fixed on me with that steady, unreadable calm of his.

“Good work today, Coach,” he says. “Not that you need me to notice it.”

A small warmth flickers in my chest, annoyingly persistent. I can’t stop the slight curve of my lips. “Well… thank you anyway, Captain.”

***

We win the game with a level of discipline that this team didn’t possess in October. When the final buzzer sounds for our twenty-seventh match, the celebration is explosive.

Rick pulls me into a brief, exuberant hug. “I’m so happy I called you, Iveline. Look at them.”

In the locker room, Kovács smirks at me as he pulls off his jersey. “You were… good tonight, Coach. Really good.”

He raises his brows, looking around the room. “Drinks? We have to celebrate the streak, right?”