How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Finnigan was unruly, perhaps he was mad—nonetheless a surge of affection went through me for him. I loved him for all the things he knew about me—for things like my brainstorming mother—and equally for all the things he didn't know: for things like Evangeline. (11.37)
It's clear that Finnigan and Gabriel have a love-hate relationship (with an emphasis on the hate). Here, we get some insight into why Gabriel keeps Finnigan around for so long in the first place: He wants someone to confide in.
Quote #5
Affection makes fools. Always, without exception, love digs a channel that's sooner or later flooded by the briny water of despair. Back then, I didn't know this to be the fact I know it is now. (15.10)
Gabriel feels this way much later because of how things ended with Evangeline. But importantly, he never really gives her the chance to respond to his declaration of love. Perhaps Finnigan's right, Gabriel is just scared of how vulnerable love makes him.
Quote #6
It was true I couldn't bring myself to touch her, though it was all I wanted to do, all I could think about doing, the single thing I would die to do. My nights were filled with seared imaginings—my hand on her chest, my palm on her spine. I loved and dreaded the fanciful nights; the hammered day was better because she was there, a thousand times worse for the same. (15.91)
After Finnigan makes fun of him for not fessing up his crush, Gabriel confides in us. He admits that he does love Evangeline, but he's scared of what might happen—Gabriel doesn't want to make a fool of himself, and he's worried that's all love ever does.