DH, though fully clothed, didn’t want to hang out and quickly called it a night and went to bed.
The complicating factor for me is the step parent dynamic. Her mother can just say “no boys past 10pm” and that is that. I appreciate the folks telling me to set boundaries or she’ll boomerang but
1) DH is obviously having problems being the bad guy (which is odd since typically he has no issue) and
2). I’m NOT her parent. At any given moment she could just decide she doesn’t like me and that’s that. She can just decide not to deal with me. As a result I feel like I need to tiptoe around her or she won’t come and stay with us/visit us/spend holidays with us and I desperately don’t want to be the reason for that. As she grows up and her free time gets more limited, I want her to choose us and come home to us still sometimes.
But then...she’s already talking about applying for another internship in DC next summer, and I feel like we cannot just carry on like this.