Like a scoring ball in bocce, vis-à-vis the jack

• Most warm, in a way
• Dearest's companion
• Most intimate
• Most close
• Most at hand
• Most stingy
• Companion of dearest
• Like the pen or pencil you might reach for
• Certainly it's not Far Eastern in origin

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
a. Closest to, (en-superlative of: near ). prep. closest to