Chapter 23

Rory gave his mother a greeting hug when he and Clare walked into Dr. Prentiss’s office, where Dee was waiting with Quinn, who must have traded places with his father at some point overnight. “Thank you so much for staying with him, Ma,”

“Of course, baby.” She smiled at him before turning to hug Clare.

“Hey, guys,” Quinn greeted them, carefully avoiding Clare’s injured arm as he, too, hugged her. Rory shook his hand stoically, his worry about Ace not putting him in the mood for social niceties.

“Is Ace doing okay?” Clare asked.

“He’s awake, but still a bit groggy and confused. I’m sure he will love to see you two, though,” Dee told them.

“I’m going to go back and see him,” Rory announced. Clare followed him as he pushed through a door into the back of the office.

They entered a large room containing several kennels and shelves full of medical equipment. A large table to one side of the room was covered in towels, and Ace was lying across them on his side.

“Hey, buddy,” Clare said softly as she came up beside him and stroked his neck. His eyes slanted up at her and he made a small whimpering sound, but didn’t move.

“Jeez, Ace,” Rory mumbled, stricken by the large bandages across his dog’s side. The end of Ace’s tail flickered lightly, but then rested.

Dr. Prentiss joined them a few seconds later. “Hey, kids.”

“Doctor, how is he?” Rory immediately asked as Clare pulled up a stool to the edge of the table and sat with her one hand wrapped around Ace’s paw and her good arm petting his head.

“He’s going to make a full recovery,” the vet reassured them, smiling proudly. “It was touch and go there for a while. Quite a bit of internal damage was done, so the recovery process will be slow.”

“But he’s going to be okay?”

“Yup, he’ll just have another scar to add to the collection.”

Rory surveyed Ace, realizing for the first time how many scars the poor dog had collected over his lifetime.

“He does have a lot, doesn’t he?” Clare solemnly echoed his thoughts.

“He’s been through a lot.”

“He’s a hero; he saved my life. He deserves a medal,” Clare stated, leaning down to kiss Ace’s head. He watched them all intently, his tail flicking slightly every now and again.

“They going to charge the son of a bitch who did this to him?” the vet asked.

“I hope so—he’s in custody now. We’re going to the station after this to make our reports,” Rory told him.

“Good, I hope they nail the bastard.”

“If I have anything to say about it, they will do a lot more than just that,” Rory muttered angrily, remembering everything that had happened. “When can we take him home?”

“Depends. Will someone be there to care for him round the clock? He’ll need a lot of help over the next week or so,” Dr. Prentiss told them.

“I will, yeah—I’ll be off work anyway, thanks to my arm,” Clare said without hesitation. Pride swelled in Rory at how affectionate and caring she was for his dog.

“All right, then, he can probably go home with you tomorrow. Let me monitor his vitals for the next day, just to make sure he stays on this path. After that, he’ll just need a lot of love and care, which we can do here, but I think he would enjoy being with people he knows more,” the vet explained.

“I agree,” Rory said.

“Plus, Clare, it can be a little extra vet training for you. You’re starting school soon, right?” Dr. Prentiss said.

“Yeah, I am…” She sounded lost, like she had forgotten.

“Win, win for everyone, then,” the doctor said, leaving the room.

Clare leaned down and kissed Ace again, whispering something to him in his ear that Rory couldn’t hear. She then continued to caress him affectionately. Rory squeezed her shoulders as he watched and joined in petting every once in a while. They stayed with Ace for another hour or so, before heading over to the police station to give their accounts of yesterday’s events.

“You’re really milking this, aren’t you?” Rory griped, while still smiling at Clare as she lay on his couch next to Ace.

“We’re practically veterans. Have some respect.” Clare tucked the throw blanket under her legs and cocooned herself in its warmth before she resumed petting Ace, who lay spread out beside her with his head in her lap.

“Since when does that mean I have to cater to your every whim?”

“Since the moment you decided to fall in love with me,” she teased in response.

“That wasn’t a choice. My falling in love with you was like accidentally falling off the edge of a cliff; first it was a slipup, then it was terrifying, then I hit the finish line and ended up in Heaven.”

“Did you just compare loving me to dying?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Depends—was it romantic?”

“Not at all.”

“Then I didn’t say that. I compared loving you to skipping through a field of daisies.”

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “You’re so going to pay for that.”

“Are you going to punish me? I might like that.” His eyes heated as he stared at her, and she blushed at the implication.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” She chuckled, then became quiet for a moment. “I really thought I was going to die, Rory.”

“I’ll never let that happen,” Rory teased her, not picking up on the shift in her attitude.

“No, I’m being serious; I really thought Travis was going to kill me,” she repeated. “I spent years living under his thumb, watching him hurt people, hurting me. Then the last few months hiding, all to culminate in this?”

She motioned to her arm in a sling and to Ace.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, it seems anticlimactic; it seems unreal. I was so afraid for so long, and in one day everything is over? He is gone, for good?” Clare said incredulously.

“You were stabbed, Clare. That’s not anticlimactic to me. I don’t think Ace would call it that, either.” Rory tried to reassure her as he leaned down to pet the dog’s head.

“I’m not saying it wasn’t terrible. It was. It was one of the worst days of my life—but now it’s just over. He’s in jail.”

“And you don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

“See? That’s my point.” She bit her lip, contemplating how she was feeling, “What do I do with all that space now? All that space in my heart and my mind that used to be filled with fear? What now?”

“I don’t know exactly, mhuirnín,” Rory replied. Leaving Ace, he sat down on Clare’s other side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “But I think it might be kind of like when I used to be a professional fighter.”

“You still are,” she pointed out.

“Only for charity games and things like that—being a trainer isn’t really the same. But that’s not my point.” His eyebrows knit together as he thought. “My point is that fighting was my whole life. It took up every part of my entire being. When it ended, I felt empty.”

“What did you do?” she asked, leaning her head against his shoulder.

“I started popping pills like they were candy,”

“I hope you’re not suggesting I do that,” she playfully replied.

“Will you just listen to me?” He lifted her chin slightly with two fingers as he grazed his lips over hers. She found herself holding her breath as she leaned in to him farther, wanting him to kiss her. He pulled away and she whimpered in protest.

“I’m not saying to do what I did, because that didn’t work. I thought it did, for a while. I thought the pills and the booze were filling that empty space, but they weren’t.”

“So what did?”

“You did, Clare. When I met you, that’s when I realized how empty I was. You made me want to be a better person, not just so that I could be worthy of someone like you, but also for myself. You made me look at my life differently, appreciate what I have, and see that happiness can be found in something as simple as someone’s smile.”

“Rory”—she kissed him softly—“that was beautiful.”

“I am known to be romantic every once in a while.” He kissed her back and slid a few strands of hair behind one ear.