Bother to embrace us in extremes of fondness (4)

I believe the answer is:

fuss

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'bother' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'us in extremes of fondness' is the wordplay.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'extremes of' means to remove the middle letters (only the letters at the extremes of the word).
'fondness' with its centre removed is 'fs'.
'us' put inside 'fs' is 'FUSS'.

'to embrace' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fuss that I've seen before include "Worry without reason" , "Bustle; ado" , "Unnecessary excitment or bother" , "To-do" , "Unnecessary activity or bother" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.