Second couple hugging little darling (7)
I believe the answer is:
sweetie
'darling' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'second couple hugging little' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'second' could be 's' (common abbreviation) and 's' is found within the answer.
'couple' could be 'tie' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'tie' is found in the answer.
'little' could be 'wee' ('wee' can be similar in meaning to 'little') and 'wee' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sweetie that I've seen before include "honey" , "Barley sugar, for example" , "Maybe boyfriend" , "dear" , "treasure?" .)