dlc5966

I'm 22 and single and need advice about a situation I currently find myself in- I have two dogs with a skin condition that requires frequent trips to the vet, and a while ago a new vet tech started working there... and as trite as it sounds it was literally like love at first sight for me when I saw him.
Anyway he ended up helping out in the exam room that day, and I just got the impression he kept looking at me and smiling excessively. At first I figured he was just being polite, but every time I returned to the vet it seemed like he always made it a point to be the tech helping out in my exam room, and he started talking to me more frequently and getting really friendly. Even if a while had gone by where I hadn't been in, the next time I was there he would still remember little details about things we had talked about like where I was from, where I worked, what I was going to school for, etc. For example, the last trip I was there he was all smiles and said "by the way I never got your name" and as soon as I told him every time he talked to me after he made a point to keep saying my name in the conversation. Also I discovered that the Hosp I am doing my nursing clinical at, his sister works at, and on the same floor too. So he said to me "Oh, wow that’s where my sister works, I'll have to tell her to look for you" and when he talks to me he doesn't just talk briefly, he actually takes a good chunk out of his time at work to talk to me. Needless to say the more we talked the more I liked him. I really want to ask him out on a date but I can't tell if he's just being polite or is genuinely interested/attracted to me. That is my first dilemma.
But despite that, my last visit I decided I was just going to ask him out already. So I had the perfect opportunity, we were both alone in the exam room, and just as I was about to ask when I noticed he was wearing one of those claddagh rings on his right ring finger (a ring which I had never seen him wear before, ever)and the heart was facing him. I don’t know a whole lot about those rings but I've heard if the heart is facing you it means you're "taken" and if it's facing out you're single. However, I have some friends who wear them with the heart facing them, but they are single. So I don't know what to think or do. But I didn’t ask him out on a date that day because of the ring.
My friends keep telling me they think the ring could have just been a coincidence, like he just happened to put it on in the direction that morning, and that he sounds interested, but I am worried they are just telling me what they think I want to hear despite what may be the truth.
Do you have any advice as to whether he's probably just being polite and I'm imagining things are more than what they are, or he may be genuinely interested? And what about the ring, should I just forget him and consider him taken, or should I just ask him out anyway? Please help