Number of Eimi's first that's between a couple of Hob's (1,2,4)

'first that's between a couple of hob's' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'number of eimi's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'number' could be 'm' (M is an example) and 'm' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'eimi' is 'iemi' which is present in the left over letters.
The remaining letters 'ne' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?