Sweet Celebration by Suzanne Jenkins

Something’s got to give for the residents of the old cabins on Sugarloaf Avenue. Christmas is right around the corner, and everyone’s life is in upheaval, or on the cusp of it.

Jennifer Montrose and her six-year-old daughter, Sophia, flee San Diego after an ugly breakup, and drive the three hours north to Big Bear, where a new life, and a new job, awaits. With one week to find an apartment, get Sophia enrolled in school, and find childcare, Jennifer has her work cut out for her. She doesn’t know anyone up there at seven thousand feet elevation but the nursing recruiter who hired her, and she’s promised that the hospital would come through with help for leads to housing and childcare.
Bode Wagner is nearing the end of his rope. The car repair business his father started forty years ago is failing under Bode’s management because of several factors, the biggest one being the lack of mechanics after the pandemic. He’s worked with one other faithful employee, Clint Trainor for the past two years. Even with giving up their personal lives to fix cars almost around the clock, the backlog of work is daunting. There’s been zero time for a social life, let along a date, and Bode doesn’t even realize how long overdue he is.