Early period at home needing love (7)
I believe the answer is:
infancy
'early period' is the definition.
(early period in someone's life)
'home needing love' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'needing' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'love' becomes 'fancy' (fancy can mean to like or love romantically).
'in'+'fancy'='INFANCY'
'at' is the link.
(Other definitions for infancy that I've seen before include "Early stages of" , "Early years" , "Early stage of development" , "beginning" , "youth" .)