“He is going to relax, think things through and see what he wants to do, if anything,” said Al Cardenas, a longtime Bush confidant who served under the former Florida governor as chair of the state GOP.

In the final days leading up to the South Carolina primary, those close to the former Florida governor – donors, staffers, friends – heard him launch private broadsides against Rubio, sometimes in strikingly personal overtones. Others say Bush refrained from ever speaking ill of Rubio in private. And while the tension between them has led some Republicans to suggest Bush might instead put his support behind John Kasich, those close to Bush said on Saturday night such an endorsement was unlikely.

For many Bush backers – the large number of whom always saw Rubio as a second choice – there’s not a moment to spare. That’s because Floridians are already voting by absentee ballot heading into the state’s March 15 primary, which has 99 winner-take-all delegates at stake. As of Friday, more than 105,000 Republicans had voted. That’s less than a third of the absentee ballots that consultants expect will be cast.