Seeing her there with her head down, eyes staring at her cocoa, made his heart almost stop beating with guilt. It was hard for him to shut the auror out, to stop seeing clues everywhere but he had to, he had to quit piecing everything together. “You don't have to pick up every scent. You don't have to follow every trail. She is trying to tell you something in her own way, let her. Ignore the smoke... ignore the smoke... ignore the smoke.” The words pounded in his skull until the auror finally went quiet, and Rhett's mind became calmer and less primed to solve the mystery before she could speak it—less likely to rob them of a moment he would look back on with precious tenderness of the heart.

His hand once again reached out toward her and his fingers gently curled beneath her chin and he lifted her beautiful face to his own. Like everything else about him, Rhett's hand was remarkably steady, and it didn't produce even the ghost of a tremor. He had, at some point, removed his hat and his shaggy hair lay over his forehead. “I have,” were the only words to escape his lips. His voice was painfully gentle and he spoke so softly that another person merely steps away could not have heard him clearly. He ignored any suspicions that had tried to creep into his mind moments before. What came next had to come from her, not from his own conclusions. Despite this, his face betrayed him in the strangest of ways, a calm smile spread over it and met eyes that held only safety for her, without an ounce of judgment nor hostility within them. It was the sort of smile you gave a child that was terribly afraid of something. Slowly, his hand released her, fingers trailing her neck before finally departing altogether.

Rhett had the sort of eyes that told stories, eyes that had seen men die—and some of those men at the tip of the same wand he wore that evening. Yet for Tabitha, if she cared to look, they held only a caring depth and serenity that gave silent words to the sensations he felt within. “Go on, darlin', it's alright. Everything is alright.” He positioned himself so that he was facing her more directly, though he kept his chest and arms open to her, letting her see that he was not reserved nor shut off from her in anyway. The cowboy fell completely silent and listened intently for what might pass those lips he wanted so badly to kiss.